Quote: sootyj @ February 24 2010, 7:36 AM GMTReally? More militarisitc than Suez, Kenya, the dirty wars in Ireland, Borneo?
That's just historical ignorance.As for authoratarian? Labor's problem is they pass laws on spying, Thatcher et al just went ahead and did it. (bugging CND, agent provocateurs at miners strikes, torturing people in Ireland etc etc).
As for corrupt. Oh c'mon we're persecuting people for fiddling the minutaie of mortgage claims, kit kats and ride on mowers. Is the tough legislation that now exists on massive bungs and dodgy directorships that were common place in the previous government.
Probably the wrong place to discuss this really. But Blair took this country into 5 wars, so the most militaristic is certainly accurate. I'm not sure what government in recent history competes with that.
Authoritarian: undermining trial, first trial without jury for 400 years, right to be tried only once removed, strongest anti-terror laws ever introduced in peacetime, etc etc. I think you would have to go back to Henry VIII for anyone who interfered so much in the legal system. Maybe New Labour have surpassed him.
Corrupt: first two lords (both Labour peers) removed for 400 years, first speaker (labour) ousted for over 300 years, most undemocratic government since WWII, unelected prime minister and a cabinet full of appointees ie Lord Mandelson, Lord Sugar, Lord Adonis, Baroness Kinnock none who have been elected at all etc etc.
I think my descrition of New Labour is thus entirely accurate. I would actually be funny if it were not so sinister.
Yup and some of my friends/relatives will cheerfully regurjitate what ever Jeremy Kyle, Mathew Wright or Nick Ferrari splurge out. It's hard to be %100 neutral and maybe there is a slight leftist leaning. No broadcaster can be a %100 neutral.
But it's also the BBC who asked Brown if he was going blind and was on happy pills. Pilloried the government over expenses and the Iraq war.
That's why it such a brilliant conspiracy, it's as if.... it doesn't even exist.
Never seen Ferrari on TV, but not sure what is rightwing about the other two named. I think of Wright as being Leftist and Kyle seems to represent Labour's core heartland. If you think they represent "The right" you are seriously uninformed about politics.
The BBC asking inane personal questions of Brown is part of the trivialisation process of politics actually. As I said, the Iraq war bit is a liberal obsession, especially at the BBC which has an almost visceral vendetta over the treatment of Greg Dyke. Not seen any pillorying of the government on the BBC, and their recent commission "On Expenses" on BBC4 appears designed to shift the blame almost totally onto Speaker Martin's shoulders.