Why Oh Why

I find some things hard to understand so perhaps someone would explain them to me:-

1. Why the fear of losing some economic prosperity is more important than the reality of losing democracy and freedom.
2. Why Members of Parliament feel free to act against the wishes of the majority of people in the UK having previously promised faithfully to put into effect the wishes of the majority.
3. Why Parliament feels justified in enacting legislation that significantly weakens the UK’s position in negotiations with the EU.
4. Why it is inaccurate to describe the legislation in 3 above as an act of surrender.

Freedom Matters

“Freedom is always, and exclusively, freedom for the one who thinks differently”, as one political thinker noted. That thinker also said “Without general elections, without unrestricted freedom of press and assembly, without a free struggle of opinion, life dies out in every public institution, becomes a mere semblance of life, in which only the bureaucracy remains as the active element.”

To be in or not to be in; that is the question

To be in, or not to be in, that is the question that the citizens of the United Kingdom will have to answer on 23 June 2016 when they vote in the sea of troubles that will comprise the referendum.

There are three matters that should influence a voters’ decision; different voters will give different weight to each matter.

1. Freedom; will we enjoy more freedom within the EU or without it?
2. Prosperity; will we enjoy a better standard of living in the EU or outside the EU?
3. Safety; will we be safer within by being part of the EU by being outside the EU?

Let us not treat terrorist with undeserved respect

There will always be wicked people doing evil things. It is impossible to prevent wicked people from existing or doing evil things.

On Freedom

Many people in this nation think that they are free, but they are mistaken. Our laws bind us very tightly, as do our circumstances. Believing that the acquisition of wealth will make you free is foolish. It will simply replace one set of restrictions with another set of restrictions. The cords that bind us when severed produce new cords, like the hydra, in a never ending mass of bindings. 

Some Concepts Are Important

Some concepts are of overwhelming importance. Among these concepts are justice, freedom and liberty as well as the rule of law. Fashions change in our attitudes to important concepts and the law develops around these changes.

Patchwork Crimes

Since the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act became law on 20 October 2015 we have seen a new class of behaviour previously quite lawful but which have now become criminal acts but only in certain parts of the country.

The Ghost That Died

I think it is now clear that over my lifetime the rights of people in democracies have been gradually, slowly but very surely, eroded. When I was young we were taught in law school that everything was permitted provided there was no law prohibiting it. Today there are countless new laws prohibiting many things from new crimes invented by humanity’s ingenuity to undesirable actions which have become unlawful, even though they should not be classified as unlawful but merely undesirable.

Locked in By Fear

Fear is a political tool. It is used by politicians as a means of trying to control us. We are told to hang on desperately to the hand of nurse for fear of finding something worse because there are plenty of lions out there, waiting for an opportunity to eat us up. Chris made the point when commenting on a recent post. He wrote

Does It Yet Wave?

I picked up my guitar. It is something that I do less frequently these days. I set up my book of music with simple chords and many songs, some of which I can play. Turning the pages I came across “the Star Spangled Banner” and strummed it singing along with my poor singing voice until I reached the end of the first verse. Then I realised the true meaning of the song. The last two lines ask a question and do not make a statement.

“Oh say, does that star spangled banner yet wave

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?”

Today, the question is answered in the negative. The banner waves over a land where freedom is oppressed, and people locked up in Guantanamo without trial, and wars are fought like cowards, and the nation shivers with fear at the damage that a handful of criminals with bombs and planes can foist upon a scared nation.

Where the star spangled banner waves it does not signify freedom and bravery, but where oppression and cowardice reign.