Blair is doomed to suffer death by a thousand kiss and tells

[struggle4progress]

Simon Jenkins
Friday September 30, 2005
The Guardian

<snip> The ink was hardly dry, but Blair's party conference thugs were doing a heavy job on an 82-year-old man for shouting "nonsense" at the foreign secretary. Walter Wolfgang was mildly heckling Jack Straw for justifying unprovoked military aggression.

As luck would have it, Wolfgang was a refugee from Nazi Germany. When he felt the hand of "security" on his collar, I wonder if his mind flashed back to his youth. The incident recalls a New Yorker cartoon of a Nuremburg rally. It has the Führer beginning his speech: "I think I may say without fear of contradiction?"

What was outrageous was not the ejection as such - insecure politicians have always feared hecklers - but the use of anti-terrorism powers. It now seems instinctive to the police to assume that an elderly heckler has terrorist intent. It is exactly the syndrome that killed Jean Charles de Menezes in the London tube.

Next year's "shoot-to-kill" anti-free-speech law will enable the police to throw people such as Wolfgang into prison for giving "unintentional encouragement" to any political violence. Lord Falconer said on Sunday that the powers will be enforced "reasonably". Like in Brighton on Wednesday? Does that mean Falconer will arrest only regius professors of history? <snip>

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,9115,1581657,00.html

[back2basics909]

1. OUCH!

Dam i like it.

[back2basics909]

2. PLEASE READ THIS..

.. it's a slap down for Blair, in a big way.