Wednesday 3 December 2008

Tory blowback

Good to see I'm not the only one who thinks that the scale of Tory hysteria over Damian Green's arrest might suggest that there is something in this after all. It might be a classic case of getting your retaliation is first, with the aim of prejudicing people's views before they even get to see what the fuss is about. Let's hope the Tories are absolutely rock solid that nothing wrong has occured, or this is going to look like a very cynical operation.

And this is spot on:
Rarely can so many normally reasonable people have lost so many of their marbles. I'm not just referring to the accusations of Stalinism and police state being bandied about. When I read of such grotesque comparisons being made, I genuinely worry for the mental and intellectual balance of those who profess such views. If they know anything about Stalin and police states, it is scandalous and dishonest to make such emotive connections, unless they believe them, which is even worse. If they know nothing, and are just mindlessly repeating mantras they've heard, why are people of such profound ignorance holding political and other posts of influence?

I think it's a general rule in life that accusations of Stalinism (unless directed at genuinely totalitarian regimes) only serve to "out" the user as a complete and utter twassock.

1 comment:

Charlie Marks said...

Given that the Tories don't exactly have a record of defending whistleblowers from being arrested, it's a bit rich.

If this was a seaoned civil servant concerned about errors, there would be cause for alarm if an MP in reciept of such information was arrested.

But no, the matter here is: did Green get a party loyalist to become a mole within the Home Office for the purpose of undermining public confidence in the immigration system?

This looks very likely given what we now know of the "whistleblower".