Inside the Bubble

Blair and Brown have been out pretending to put on a united front. The state of democracy in this country today can be summed up by one line in the BBC report.

There were no opportunites for journalists to ask questions of the politicians following their speeches.

Sort of reminds you of other places at other times. Attempts to gag the media, to stiffle dissent, to avoid legitimate questions and criticisms, to create an entirely fictional world to present to the public...

The problem, of course, is that there are so many unanswered questions. It would be political suicide to allow journalists to ask any of them. So, instead, we get carefully choreographed set pieces. It's not this but...

Update
Anti-terrorism police officers removed Mr Harraj Mann from a flight before take off and questioned him for three hours after he was reported for singing in a taxi on the way to the airport. It's clearly his own fault though.

Firstly, he's Asian and that's obviously inadvisable if you intend to travel by plane. Secondly, he was not singing an offically sanctioned party anthem. If he'd been singing "God Save the Blair" or "Things are unquestionably getting better and anyone who says otherwise is a traitor" or (my favourite) "Dissenters will be Lifted", he'd have been fine.

Tags: News, Politics, Media, The End