Some of my best friends are Labor Party members, as the saying goes.
But can we trust Labor with our civil liberties?
I hope so, because Australia has ‘wall-to-wall’ Labor Governments in all States and Territories – as well as a Labor Government in Canberra.
It’s the closest to One Party Rule in our history.
In the old country, Nu Labour is fast earning as reputation as the most authoritarian government in living memory.
Here’s a report from The Independent, one of the British newspapers that Rupert Murdoch doesn’t own:
It survived six Tory governments, the end of the Cold War and the rise and fall of mass marches against the British nuclear deterrent. But after 50 years in which the tradition of peaceful demonstration has been maintained outside the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston, the New Labour era has finally done for one of the most famous symbols of protest in British political history.
Today would have seen the latest gathering of the band of women who have assembled on the second Saturday of each month since the 1980s to object to the continuing development of the United Kingdom’s nuclear deterrent. Instead, following a High Court ruling this week, the protest tents are being removed, demonstrators are being threatened with arrest and “no camping” signs are being erected.
The Rudd Government seems more benign. Let’s hope it is.
As insurance, I suggest that a vote for independents, with a track record of commitment to civil liberties and free speech, who aren’t beholden to any party machine.
Of course, I have a vested interest in the suggestion.
That’s one of the way’s I like to describe myself.
Election day on the Tablelands is March 15th 2008.
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Stop Press… On checking the Aldermaston Women Peace Camp’s website, it appears the Independent has it wrong.
The Alermaston women are still there.
What’s more, it doesn’t look like they plan to move on any time soon.
Go easy with the tasers, Gordon.
Here’s what the women say, in their own words:
For some reason the Indy have got it into their heads that camp is closing.
Camp is not closing. In fact camp is very much there, today, outside Aldermaston.
Come and join us!
So, the report was just another media beat-up, perhaps – this time from a relatively credible source within the grotesque disinformation service also known as the western mass media?
How nice to have a free internet, so we can check out news and other information more directly.
