Thread: Most eloquent rant ever on loss of civil liberties

Hmm

good article, but I must admit some of those laws are very good and useful pieces of law.

The Protection from Harassment acts prevents stalkers from stalking, or ex partners from harassing their exes.

The Anti social behaviour act also gives powers to shut down crack houses which are causing misery in otherwise nice areas.

but the rest of it is true.

Originally Posted by Ord_Sgt

I think the Tories are keeping their powder dry. This is the longest serving socialist government in our history, the experiment will never be repeated, you couldn't fcuk it up as much with a brewery of whisky and an Afghanistan of smack even if you tried. Labour are destined for the bin of history. I predict - god forgive me for saying it - the LIb Dems will replace them at the next election as the second party.

The down side of course is a generation will need to repay the debt!!!

Agreed, though they better start talking soon, the euro elections are in 3 months, libdem and ZanuLab will be fighting it out for 2nd place, but the libs will only snatch 2nd with a Troy landslide and good tactical voting.

As for the debt, chances are if inflation flatlines the BoE will simply print money and buy chunks of it from HMG, if only to keep inflation from going negative, which would really f**k things up (can you imagine trying to cut the minimum wage, it would make the poll tax riots look like a teddybears picnic)

I wonder how much Blair's pension is worth.

Jack Straw says yer wrong....

Then begins his article by telling you how we have more freedom than asylum seekers and muslims.

What an utter, utter cnut.

I'm sure if he bothered to ask any of his English constituents he'd get a different answer. 'We can vote them out' hardly explains why power has been handed to an unelected EU.

As for Labour's achievements, what the hell does he think they are? A ruined economy, failing education and the emasculation of the armed services are not achievements.

The only thing they've achieved is having new Labours collective snouts in the trough at our expense.

This elegant and powerful prose has now been removed from the 'Times online website'.

It has also been 'scrubbed' from Google Cache

I reproduce it here protected under Article 10(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms 1953 as incorporated under section 1(1)(a) Human Rights Act 1998.

Those who care about these things might like to copy it and email it to everyone in their address book with a request that it be similarly passed on. It is generally polite to attribute the work to the author.

[align=center]THE MALEVOLENT WHISPERS THAT DESPISE OUR FREEDOM[/align]
[align=center]by[/align]
[align=center]Phillip Pullman[/align]

"Are such things done on Albion’s shore?

The image of this nation that haunts me most powerfully is that of the sleeping giant Albion in William Blake’s prophetic books. Sleep, profound and inveterate slumber: that is the condition of Britain today.

We do not know what is happening to us. In the world outside, great events take place, great figures move and act, great matters unfold, and this nation of Albion murmurs and stirs while malevolent voices whisper in the darkness - the voices of the new laws that are silently strangling the old freedoms the nation still dreams it enjoys.

We are so fast asleep that we don’t know who we are any more. Are we English? Scottish? Welsh? British? More than one of them? One but not another? Are we a Christian nation - after all we have an Established Church - or are we something post-Christian? Are we a secular state? Are we a multifaith state? Are we anything we can all agree on and feel proud of?

The new laws whisper:

You don’t know who you are

You’re mistaken about yourself

We know better than you do what you consist of, what labels apply to you, which facts about you are important and which are worthless

We do not believe you can be trusted to know these things, so we shall know them for you

And if we take against you, we shall remove from your possession the only proof we shall allow to be recognised

The sleeping nation dreams it has the freedom to speak its mind. It fantasises about making tyrants cringe with the bluff bold vigour of its ancient right to express its opinions in the street. This is what the new laws say about that:

Expressing an opinion is a dangerous activity

Whatever your opinions are, we don’t want to hear them

So if you threaten us or our friends with your opinions we shall treat you like the rabble you are

And we do not want to hear you arguing about it

So hold your tongue and forget about protesting

What we want from you is acquiescence

The nation dreams it is a democratic state where the laws were made by freely elected representatives who were answerable to the people. It used to be such a nation once, it dreams, so it must be that nation still. It is a sweet dream.

You are not to be trusted with laws

So we shall put ourselves out of your reach

We shall put ourselves beyond your amendment or abolition

You do not need to argue about any changes we make, or to debate them, or to send your representatives to vote against them

You do not need to hold us to account

You think you will get what you want from an inquiry?

Who do you think you are?

What sort of fools do you think we are?

The nation’s dreams are troubled, sometimes; dim rumours reach our sleeping ears, rumours that all is not well in the administration of justice; but an ancient spell murmurs through our somnolence, and we remember that the courts are bound to seek the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and we turn over and sleep soundly again.

And the new laws whisper:

We do not want to hear you talking about truth

Truth is a friend of yours, not a friend of ours

We have a better friend called hearsay, who is a witness we can always rely on

We do not want to hear you talking about innocence

Innocent means guilty of things not yet done

We do not want to hear you talking about the right to silence

You need to be told what silence means: it means guilt

We do not want to hear you talking about justice

Justice is whatever we want to do to you

And nothing else

Are we conscious of being watched, as we sleep? Are we aware of an ever-open eye at the corner of every street, of a watching presence in the very keyboards we type our messages on? The new laws don’t mind if we are. They don’t think we care about it.

We want to watch you day and night

We think you are abject enough to feel safe when we watch you

We can see you have lost all sense of what is proper to a free people

We can see you have abandoned modesty

Some of our friends have seen to that

They have arranged for you to find modesty contemptible

In a thousand ways they have led you to think that whoever does not want to be watched must have something shameful to hide

We want you to feel that solitude is frightening and unnatural

We want you to feel that being watched is the natural state of things

One of the pleasant fantasies that consoles us in our sleep is that we are a sovereign nation, and safe within our borders. This is what the new laws say about that:

We know who our friends are

And when our friends want to have words with one of you

We shall make it easy for them to take you away to a country where you will learn that you have more fingernails than you need

It will be no use bleating that you know of no offence you have committed under British law

It is for us to know what your offence is

Angering our friends is an offence

It is inconceivable to me that a waking nation in the full consciousness of its freedom would have allowed its government to pass such laws as:

the Protection from Harassment Act (1997),
the Crime and Disorder Act (199,
the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (2000),
the Terrorism Act (2000),
the Criminal Justice and Police Act (2001),
the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act (2001),
the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Extension Act (2002),
the Criminal Justice Act (2003),
the Extradition Act (2003),
the Anti-Social Behaviour Act (2003),
the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act (2004),
the Civil Contingencies Act (2004),
the Prevention of Terrorism Act (2005),
the Inquiries Act (2005),
the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (2005),

not to mention a host of pending legislation such as

the Identity Cards Bill,
the Coroners and Justice Bill, and the
Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill.

Inconceivable.

And those laws say:

Sleep, you stinking cowards

Sweating as you dream of rights and freedoms

Freedom is too hard for you

We shall decide what freedom is

Sleep, you vermin

Sleep, you scum

Pray what reason did the Times have for removing this article?

Reading the comments under Jack Straws article is fun, not one positive that I could find.

Originally Posted by Flight

Pray what reason did the Times have for removing this article?

Reading the comments under Jack Straws article is fun, not one positive that I could find.

I found one - we can vote them out at the next Election - and we will!

Originally Posted by smartascarrots

How many times have their British counterparts been branded ‘vigilantes’ and prosecuted?

Didn't you mean "persecuted"?

What a chilling message.

It ought to be put on the front page of the next Conservative and LibDem manifestos

Originally Posted by Idrach

Originally Posted by smartascarrots

How many times have their British counterparts been branded ‘vigilantes’ and prosecuted?

Didn't you mean "persecuted"?

No, I really did mean prosecuted. The law takes strongly against those who usurp its powers, even where it's failed to exercise them itself.

Originally Posted by King_of_the_Burpas

It's not just the throbbers who run the country are to blame. We are too.

The Romans used 'bread and circuses' to keep the plebs in order and the modern political elite can do much the same today; the circus in this case being the jibbering torrent of celebrity driven shiite that is all that most of us Brits care about any more.

They can do what they like in Westminster, just so long as we can keep reading about 'tragic' Jade or the size of Jordan's knockers.

Never a truer word.

As usual on ARRSE, mention civil liberties and there is a huge outpouring of blame against the government - and not a single practical solution mentioned. As long as we can all bang on about it on ARRSE, that should do. How many here are members of a political institution who are trying to actually practically do anything about all of these problems and the imminent end of civilisation?

For information, and in direct response to a couple of posts on this:

How long has the PLA equivalent of ARRSE been up and running. Lets see if we can kick it off, and see how long it lasts.

I have had perfectly reasonable conversations in the UK with traffic wardens, police, council officials and all sorts of other representatives of public bodies. I have also met the "petty Hitlers," I have met "petty Hitlers" in the private sector, in the military, in other countries. I do not percieve it as being any worse in the UK that any where else.

The current administration is corrupt, incompetent, arrogant and generally useless - I do not see any particular improvements in any of the other copntenders however. We have allowed these people to get into power; Labour, New Labour, One Nation Tory, Thatcherite Conservative, Liberal Democrat - all essentially the same under the skin. We are the ones who, finding nothing satisfactory to vote for, simply stopped voting. Generations past would have proposed the society they wanted, formed the institution to achieve it, and convinced their constituency. The attitude now - they are not doing what I want. SULK.

I do worry for the future of this country, but not because of the idiots that run it. Rather I worry because of the petty idiots that we, the population, has become.

Originally Posted by Iolis

This elegant and powerful prose has now been removed from the 'Times online website'.

It has also been 'scrubbed' from Google Cache

I reproduce it here protected under Article 10(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms 1953 as incorporated under section 1(1)(a) Human Rights Act 1998.

Those who care about these things might like to copy it and email it to everyone in their address book with a request that it be similarly passed on. It is generally polite to attribute the work to the author.

[align=center]THE MALEVOLENT WHISPERS THAT DESPISE OUR FREEDOM[/align]
[align=center]by[/align]
[align=center]Phillip Pullman[/align]

"Are such things done on Albion’s shore?

The image of this nation that haunts me most powerfully is that of the sleeping giant Albion in William Blake’s prophetic books. Sleep, profound and inveterate slumber: that is the condition of Britain today.

We do not know what is happening to us. In the world outside, great events take place, great figures move and act, great matters unfold, and this nation of Albion murmurs and stirs while malevolent voices whisper in the darkness - the voices of the new laws that are silently strangling the old freedoms the nation still dreams it enjoys.

We are so fast asleep that we don’t know who we are any more. Are we English? Scottish? Welsh? British? More than one of them? One but not another? Are we a Christian nation - after all we have an Established Church - or are we something post-Christian? Are we a secular state? Are we a multifaith state? Are we anything we can all agree on and feel proud of?

The new laws whisper:

You don’t know who you are

You’re mistaken about yourself

We know better than you do what you consist of, what labels apply to you, which facts about you are important and which are worthless

We do not believe you can be trusted to know these things, so we shall know them for you

And if we take against you, we shall remove from your possession the only proof we shall allow to be recognised

The sleeping nation dreams it has the freedom to speak its mind. It fantasises about making tyrants cringe with the bluff bold vigour of its ancient right to express its opinions in the street. This is what the new laws say about that:

Expressing an opinion is a dangerous activity

Whatever your opinions are, we don’t want to hear them

So if you threaten us or our friends with your opinions we shall treat you like the rabble you are

And we do not want to hear you arguing about it

So hold your tongue and forget about protesting

What we want from you is acquiescence

The nation dreams it is a democratic state where the laws were made by freely elected representatives who were answerable to the people. It used to be such a nation once, it dreams, so it must be that nation still. It is a sweet dream.

You are not to be trusted with laws

So we shall put ourselves out of your reach

We shall put ourselves beyond your amendment or abolition

You do not need to argue about any changes we make, or to debate them, or to send your representatives to vote against them

You do not need to hold us to account

You think you will get what you want from an inquiry?

Who do you think you are?

What sort of fools do you think we are?

The nation’s dreams are troubled, sometimes; dim rumours reach our sleeping ears, rumours that all is not well in the administration of justice; but an ancient spell murmurs through our somnolence, and we remember that the courts are bound to seek the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and we turn over and sleep soundly again.

And the new laws whisper:

We do not want to hear you talking about truth

Truth is a friend of yours, not a friend of ours

We have a better friend called hearsay, who is a witness we can always rely on

We do not want to hear you talking about innocence

Innocent means guilty of things not yet done

We do not want to hear you talking about the right to silence

You need to be told what silence means: it means guilt

We do not want to hear you talking about justice

Justice is whatever we want to do to you

And nothing else

Are we conscious of being watched, as we sleep? Are we aware of an ever-open eye at the corner of every street, of a watching presence in the very keyboards we type our messages on? The new laws don’t mind if we are. They don’t think we care about it.

We want to watch you day and night

We think you are abject enough to feel safe when we watch you

We can see you have lost all sense of what is proper to a free people

We can see you have abandoned modesty

Some of our friends have seen to that

They have arranged for you to find modesty contemptible

In a thousand ways they have led you to think that whoever does not want to be watched must have something shameful to hide

We want you to feel that solitude is frightening and unnatural

We want you to feel that being watched is the natural state of things

One of the pleasant fantasies that consoles us in our sleep is that we are a sovereign nation, and safe within our borders. This is what the new laws say about that:

We know who our friends are

And when our friends want to have words with one of you

We shall make it easy for them to take you away to a country where you will learn that you have more fingernails than you need

It will be no use bleating that you know of no offence you have committed under British law

It is for us to know what your offence is

Angering our friends is an offence

It is inconceivable to me that a waking nation in the full consciousness of its freedom would have allowed its government to pass such laws as:

the Protection from Harassment Act (1997),
the Crime and Disorder Act (199,
the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (2000),
the Terrorism Act (2000),
the Criminal Justice and Police Act (2001),
the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act (2001),
the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Extension Act (2002),
the Criminal Justice Act (2003),
the Extradition Act (2003),
the Anti-Social Behaviour Act (2003),
the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act (2004),
the Civil Contingencies Act (2004),
the Prevention of Terrorism Act (2005),
the Inquiries Act (2005),
the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (2005),

not to mention a host of pending legislation such as

the Identity Cards Bill,
the Coroners and Justice Bill, and the
Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill.

Inconceivable.

And those laws say:

Sleep, you stinking cowards

Sweating as you dream of rights and freedoms

Freedom is too hard for you

We shall decide what freedom is

Sleep, you vermin

Sleep, you scum

The real question that should be asked, in this land of the so-called "free press", is, who suddenly decided that this article should disappear from TOL and Google Cache?

Further, why has it not been noted by other sections of the media?

Aren't there any journos monitoring ARRSE any more? Ladies and gentlemen of the press, some 'professional' comment would add to the debate. It's a meaty subject, girls and boys!

Call me a conspiracy theorist, if you like, but I'll bet a pound, to a pinch of sh*t, that it wasn't pulled at the request of Philip Pullman!

The fact that it lasted as long as it did on TOL, is a clear indication that it was passed at editorial level, probably unreviewed, on the strength of Pullman's name and reputation as a children's author; someone being unaware of his stance on civil liberties.

Thereafter it evidently jangled a few nerves and engendered some enraged phone calls... :D

Too late, the djinni is out of the bottle and, as Iolis says, the piece should be passed around every email contact we have, ASAP!

Originally Posted by Toasted_Giant

Had a quick search, but doesn't look as if it's been picked up here. Phillip Pullman, in the Times today, has written a brilliant piece on the erosion of our civil liberties by the spineless scum that run our country, taster below:

The nation dreams it is a democratic state where the laws were made by freely elected representatives who were answerable to the people. It used to be such a nation once, it dreams, so it must be that nation still. It is a sweet dream.
etc . . .[/i]

Full article here.

I'm just getting error messages at the Times website (suspicious enpough for a conspiracy theory? ).

However, the article is available here LINK
Edited to add At the foot of the article it says "Philip Pullman will deliver a keynote speech at the Convention on Modern Liberty at the Institute of Education in London tomorrow"

I'd really like to see a transcript of that speech.

Ask and it shall be done.

Looks like someones used a speech to text programme on it but it makes enough sense to be readable..

PHILIP PULLMAN: I have got 10 minutes and in that time I want to say something about this nation as it might bear on the virtues that sustain a working nation.

I am not going to spend much time on the voices that undermine it although as every story teller knows it is easier and more fun to talk about vice than virtue. There are plenty of things to say about the vices of this nation but I shan’t dwell on them now hard as it is I will stick with virtue.



So what after virtues that a nation need to be a state fit for people to live in. First of all it needs courage. Courage is a foundational virtue you could say. It is what we need in order to act climbed even when we are afraid in order to exercise good judgment even in the midst of confusion at panic in order to deal with long term necessity even when short-term exbe decision I would, not weighed of its own newspapers, it would continue to do what was right even when loud voices were edging to it do what was beyond. It would stand up to economic interests when others were more important and yes there are interests that are more important than economic short-term economic benefits.



Such a nation for example would rule out new coal fired power stations full stop. Would have the guts to say to the financial interests that wanted to put them up. No you can’t do it and there is the end of it. Find something less destructive to invest in. When it came to the threat of external nation a courageous nation would take a clear look at the danger and take realise ticks steps to a,vert it knock take up a machine gun to defend itself against a was P. Another virtue that nation needs is intellectual curiousty wakefulness of mind one might put it. A nation of that quality would be aware of itself conscious of itself and its history and every separate threat that makes up the tabesttry of its culture. Dot the dot writers and poetss teach its children how to know and thousand to understand and love. We have to be taught how to love, how to love their work.



Believing this active would give them the children an important part to play in the self knowledge and the memory of the nation.



A nation where there is virtue was strong, would be active and inquiring of mind quick to conceive and prepare and consider such. Nation would know at once when a government tried to interfere with its freedoms. Would remember how all the freedoms had been gained because each one was have a story attack an attack on any of them would feel like a personal affront that is the value of wakefulness. I never imagined when I agree to speak today I would find myself talking about virtue. But thinking about what this nation might have been and might still be makes it impossible to avoid and the next virtue I will praise is perhaps even more unlikely than at the moment. It is modesty. Modesty which not at all the assume as humility not at all the same as prudishness or self abasement, modestly in a nation conssts amongst other things of fitting the form to the meaning and not miss tathinking style for sus stance. A modest Kingdom we would have to think for a moment whether or not public because its Royal family would be small and its members would be allowed to spend most their time in interesting careers as well as being Royal, their love affairs would remain their own business and people would always be glad to see them cycling past.



Why does this matter? Well 21 years ago charT88 began to show us that every part of our complex and bewill daring complex stin to yoution was tangled up with every other part. In order to improve this we had to alter that. In order to let itself flow properly here we had to remove a obstruction over there. All these things are connected. Acquiring modesty, a proper sense of our size and position in the world would be a big step to reducing the self importance of politicians who imagine they are defying existential treats when majorly throwing their weight around the bicycle sheds like a playground bully.



Applause).



There are many more virtues I could consider but there is one I can’t leave out. That is honour. Whatever members of Parliament think it was honourable to pocket large fees in exchange for legislation. To conceal the truth about dot dot how this nations cabinet to lead us to war. (applause).



Whatever led a government to think it was honourable to spy on its own people. These things are a continue numb. The small offenders get caught the big ones smirk as they talk about realism and efficiency in extraordinary times needing regard to messages. Just imagine for a moment a nation with the the courage the modesty with a simple wakeful clarty of mind that so is near at mind, so easy to find if only we knew. Imagine a government that trusted the people who elected it. Imagine agencies of the state that regarded the people’s privacy of something it was the state’s duty to guard rather like the value of their money and the historic individuality of their town centres and freedom to speak and write as they liked.



My injunation cherished these things as a natural blessing something obviously good that needed no just fee occasion something like sunshine or kindness or clean water or honour.



Before I finish I want to say something briefly about how virtue manifests itself in daily life, local life. I saw 3 things, 3 little things recently in this nation of ours that gave we hope that the spirit of virtue, a common public civic virtue is style live where people are free to act without interference. One of the examples I call it folk traffic calming. People living in a residential road in the city live in a road home too lot of families and children a road that not only is a rat run for cars decided to take matters into their own hands to demonstrate that the street is for everyone not just people in large mobile heavy steel objects. They said up a living room in the road with a sofa and a coffee table and held a tea party. They put plant ears long the road containing bushes and small trees not blocking it just calming the traffic down. They said up a very funny walk in petrol addiction clinic. (laughter). The result was that cars could get through easily but drivers couldn’t see easily and didn’t think it was for driving along at 30 miles an hour. Everyone shared the whole space. It was a triumph. Inventiveness of a decent human standard of life.



The second thing I saw was a foundry of an industrial estate in Leicestershire. May make casting for sculptures from the minute and monumental the company was founded 20 years ago and starting from nothing they now have over 80 crafts people working flat out many trained by the company itself. When I visited them a couple of weeks ago every corner was busy of Creative activity that is another example of what I mean by virtue the goodness of productive work the nation is better place because of it. John would have recognise, that and he would’ve seen the economic threat that hands over it too.



The third thing I saw was the television programme. With a poet loriot in this country we also have a children’s laureat and at the moment it is Michael Rozen, a great man I think. The programme is about a project he undertook with a school in south Wales where books had been under valued for one reason or another he showed the children and their parents and the teachers the profound value of reading and what it can do to deepen and enrich our life and not by following guide lying and targets and putting the children 2 tests but by the beginning and ending with delight. Enchantment. Joy.



The librarians there were practically weep within the relief and pleasure seeing so many children coming in to search at the shelves and search read and the talked about the books they enjoy. But the libraries are still under threat of course.



Now what have these things to do with freedom and the threats to freedom we have been hearing about today. What has the virtue of delight to do with virtue of liberty. Everything. A nation whose Louise express? And suspicion cannot sustain delight for very long. Joy does not flourish in the garden of anxiety the society these layers seem to be wanting to bring about is one of institutionallised paranoia and low level panic, every scrap of delight at glad Nness we can find is below against that fifear. Every civility is … every example we cherish of imaginative pay of the energy of creation and enchantment of art at the wonder of science is weapoint on the arsenal and I say weapon in the say asnal advice saidly we have a fight on our hands. I will not cease from mental fight said William Blake and this is the fight he meant the fight to defend, to restore, and to sustain the virtue which is not now but could so easily be the natural behaviour of the state.

We are a better people than our government believes we are. We are a better nation.