Reasons For Fear

Prologue
It’s quiet in Westminster, the Palace wasting away until life returns with the new parliamentary session on September 7.

But some interesting things have belched to the surface; another part of the on-going asylum/immigrantion “clamp-down” announced and, separately, changes to the government’s slick press relations machine to “end spin”.
And the Hutton inquiry grinds on.

With them all come more reasons to be fearful.

Nails hammered into innocence
Something isn’t right here, at the centre. Where the rot is. Where things go round in circles, where the crazed and starving dog eats its own legs, enjoying every bite as it bleeds to death.

Much being made by the Home Office of new plans to make immigrants pass a test, proving they are British enough to deserve a passport and the right to vote. Things ALL people born in this country get automatically, rights fundamental to the democracy we are so proud of, so found of exporting - courtesy of the British Army - to certain corrupt Middle Eastern dictatorships.

Supporting the whole idea, Home Secretary David Blunkett. The man who also wants immigrants pledge allegiance to the Queen in order to become a British citizen: something NO person born in this country has to do, not through FEAR it would spark a republican revolution, but because it would just be too stupid to even consider. Everyone knows the Queen and her family will go to hell, THAT much is in the Bible.

At the launch of this whole messy ‘test’ affair, an announcement of what ‘Britishness’ by Sir Bernard Crick, Chairman of the Life in the United Kingdom group.

It ran: "To be British means respecting the institutions, values, beliefs and traditions that bind us all together in peace and legal order. It is vital that new citizens are also equipped to be active citizens with a course of practical learning and an understanding of UK society and civic structures.”


At the same time, the same government which both gobbles-up and produces this sort of offal, makes its end of spin announcement and admits it has shown no respect for the institutions, legal order or values it expects immigrants to revere.
Admits, that is, in the sense of changing something it has been doing which is utterly corrupt and wrong without accepting that has been the case, without apologising. Rather the begrudging acceptance of a corporate crook who’s been caught in the act, guilty as sin, but who knows nothing will happen as long as he makes a show of changing his ways.

So, the PM has agreed no Press Officer should have powers to order civil servants to do things. Alistair Campbell DID have these powers, and this has now been changed, clear acknowledgement the whole thing stank, and did for years.
An unelected, highly-paid political public relations man with the power to tell ‘politically impartial’ public servants what to do. Oh yes: to be British means respecting the institutions, values, beliefs and traditions that bind us all together.
Maybe this kind of legalised filth IS truly British – in fact I’m sure of it – but it hardly seems fair to make immigrants change into snakes. How can you force someone to respect these kinds of institutions, values and beliefs?

Postscript
And so the Hutton Inquiry grinds on, uncovering more evidence of the shit at the foundations of British politics: hearing from anonymous MoD sources that people in the department were unhappy with ALL of the WMD dossier, unhappy with the exaggerations, unhappy with the way suspicions about Iraq’s weapons were turned into hard-fact by linguistic sleight of hand.

Miraculous transformations pushed for by a man named Alistair Campbell, a political press officer who CHAIRED the ‘impartial’ and sober intelligence committee whose job it was to accurately and fairly present the truth about Iraq’s weapons, such as they were. A committee which instead pushed through an agenda for war on behalf of the Prime Minister’s spokesman on behalf of the Prime Minister. Respect the institutions and values.

They'll walk on your face, even if you try to stop them, and laugh as they go.
Will that be included in the immigrants test?