Враги трудящихся *

“All leaders of the Constitutional Democratic party, a party filled with enemies of the people, are hereby to be considered outlaws, and are to be arrested immediately and brought before the revolutionary court” [1]

That our government is ruling over this country by inalienable, divine right is no longer debatable. They have now assumed absolute power, and along with it the conviction that they always do what is ‘right’ and, therefore, must never be challenged.

Members of Parliament find it increasingly difficult to obtain straight answers to their questions and are no longer able to hold the government to account. Most of the time, the New Labour ministers manage to deflect attention away from any inconvenient topics, obfuscate unhindered and, on occasion, even get away with impudently insincere replies.

We ourselves know it only too well, since none of the MPs whom we have contacted in relation with the Gaul RFI miscarriage of justice was able to break the government’s silence and bring the matter to the fore.

And, as though things were not bad enough as they were, it now turns out that the government has decided that some of these inconvenient questions should not even arise.

As confirmation on this state of affairs, we learn that, a couple of days ago, a member of the shadow cabinet was arrested for the ‘crime’ of having embarrassed the government with the disclosure of some leaked information - data which, in the public interest, we should all have the right to see.

The British Police, in pure Cheka [2] fashion, seem to have started rounding up the Opposition politicians who are still able to confront the executive – a few sparse, dissenting voices, now treated as ‘enemies of the people’, who must be annihilated and made an example of.

(This, of course, is the same police force who, faking ignorance and confusion, sidestepped the allegations of fraud in the Gaul RFI in order to protect the Labour high ranks and the murky interests behind them.)

“Anyone who dares to spread the slightest rumour against the Soviet regime will be arrested immediately and sent to a concentration camp.” [3]

_________________________________________________

* Enemies of the labourers

[1] Grigory Zinoviev

[2] Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage (i.e. Soviet Police)

[3] Izvestiya, "Appeal to the Working Class", 1918

Behind time

As this blog attests, we have periodically requested various bits of information from the Department for Transport, on the subject of the Gaul RFI.

Periodically, though not without additional prompting, one of Mr Jim Fitzpatrick's officials, like a cuckoo out of the clock, would come out to deliver his two-note message - a message sterilised beforehand by the various DfT attorneys - and then quickly withdraw.

The answer to our latest request (see
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/trawler_gaul) is now overdue.

The government seems to be playing for time. Maybe, they hope, with time, the questions will go away and everything will be nice again.

Or, maybe, we reckon, the questions will get a lot worse.

Asking the PM

The dapper Number 10 YouTube channel is currently offering the proletariat in this country the chance to ask the PM questions (in video format) about the economy.

Wishing to take advantage of this unique opportunity, we prepared a short video clip (see below the better Dailymotion version) and confidently submitted it to http://uk.youtube.com/DowningSt.

Unfortunately, our clip, it seems, is not going to make it to the Prime Minister's attention.

Why? Probably, its content was not considered pertinent enough to economic matters, or, perhaps, too pertinent for its own good. Who knows?

Anyway, Downing Street has kindly sent us a reply to a related FOI request (you can see it here:

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/corruption_investigation), on which we shall comment properly in due course.

The epistemological virtues of John Prescott’s class concerns

The BBC has recently delighted us with a two-part documentary about John Prescott, MP and his opinions on the class system in Britain.

The programme was designed to portray Mr Prescott as a man of the people, full of candour, bonhomie and good intentions - the idyllical tones in the scenes of his domestic life tempered only by his robust take on the social inequalities in Britain.

Having had the chance, during his ten years in office, to improve the lot of those less fortunate than him, Mr Prescott now has the chance to decry that lot while at leisure.

Although Mr Prescott is not so interesting as a personality, he is still noteworthy for his symbolic value.

The BBC show, light though it was, provided a glimpse into the worldview of John Prescott’s kind of militant - i.e. the kind which remains forever insurgent.

This type - even after they have acquired wealth, political power, and have gained access to high government office and the chance to trample the social barriers underfoot - are always frustrated, deep down in their hearts, always harbouring a resentment, a grudge against the objects of their failed emulation, against something that eludes them, but which others acquire with ease and lightly pass down successive generations - a situation which, they protest, is terribly unfair.

This must be due to the fact that Mr Prescott and some of his compeers see the differences between people mainly in ephemeral terms. If they included in their ranking of human merit some more perennial values, they would find what really makes people differ, and, maybe, would also realise that modest origins are not always a guarantee of altruism and concern for the poor and that, quite often, the opposite can be true.

The pitiful saga of the Gaul stands testimony to that.