Oh nuts to it, I thought I'd start this and stay all serious in article-style format, but then I promptly abandoned it. Plus, reading news-style blogs is a bit ... boring ... contrast Matt Wardman and Tory Bear for an example of what I mean. Nothing against Matt, I find his serious take on things a pleasant diversion from the personalised approach of most Tory bloggers, but it doesn't have the amusement factor of TB, nor the in-yer-face-ya-cahnt directness of Old Holborn.
But to serious matters. Labour's recent lurch into left-wing authoritarianism has hit new ground.
Before I go into detail tho, a personal anecdote. I studied History at school, to A-level. Within that I had to complete six separate modules. One was on the Bolsheviks gaining power in 1917 Russia, and three - three! - were on Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1930s Germany. For a year or two afterwards I wondered why I had been made to study the beginnings of two of the most oppressive regimes of the 20th century.
Reading the headlines from the last week, I now understand why. It may be from the Daily Wail, but it is accurate, and a simple Google search returns the council's official page on the scheme as the first result.
My earlier comparison to the Bolshevik seizure of power and the rise of the Third Reich was flawed, I admit; this is more akin to the Staatsicherheitsdienst ('der Stasi') of the old East Germany. Paying people to spy on their neighbours was one of the hallmarks of the Stasi's system for internal repression. Now, if you couple this divisive and worryingly authoritarian move with the latest wheeze to give bouncers the power to hand out on-the-spot fines, then a worrying trend begins to take shape.
Cast your mind back a few years, to the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act's original incarnation. This nakedly authoritarian grab for power - comparable to Hitler's "Enabling Act" of 1933 - would have given Ministers the ability to amend primary legislation at will, bypassing the democratic process completely. The Act in its current form is still completely unacceptable in a democratic country, but it sits quietly on the statue books like a benign cancer, waiting to strike at any moment.
Something must be done to overhaul the political system and make politicians personally accountable for their actions in office. I do not know what, short of a civil war, but it needs to be done soon.
