Who will rid us...?

Brace yourselves. Tony has been defending his authoritarian policies in an email exchange with Henry Porter at the Observer. Oh my.

The Observer Blog is after your opinions on the issue and they've been promised a response from the government. You might want to get over there and express your views.

A quick ego-fuelled cut and paste job is all that's needed to reproduce my comment here.

In the email exchange, Tony Blair says "the alternative is that they, who do not play by our rules or any rules, get away with it."

This sentence is emblematic of everything which is wrong with the way Blair attempts to participate in "democratic debate". He constantly argues that there is no alternative to his policies and suggests, often explicitly, that to oppose his madcap schemes is to support and/or enable terrorists, evil Tories, child traffickers, drug dealers, the BNP... the list is endless. This approach is dishonest, illogical and, perhaps most worryingly, blatantly undemocratic. It's an attempt to silence opposition and distort debate which has no place in a truly demoratic society.

I believe it is the constant use of these strawmen, often attached to emotive smears, which causes people to argue, rightly in my opinion, that Blair is the greatest danger to democracy in this country in the early 21st Century. He appears to be intelligent enough to understand what he's doing and this only adds to people's concerns. We wonder if he's being deliberately medacious by behaving in this way.

I was, I have to say, trying to sound as moderate and reasonable as possible.

Readers of the Observer might not exactly be representative of the wider population as a whole but it is good to know that a great many people are highly exercised by Blair's reckless disregard for the pillars of a free society. And there are, it must be said, very few people attempting to defend the Blair on this. A sample:

His reaction to opposition is not to reconsider his position and ask if the other voices could be right. It seems to reinforce the certainty in his own infallability to the point of abnormality.
- gavinbullock

He's a liability to truth, justice, freedom, democracy, peace, fairness and critical thinking.
- Ejectorseat

Blair sounds more and more like a demented Dalek..
Legislate...Legislate...LEGISLATE !
only far more dangerous to us...
- Sparks2006

Jean Charles de Menezes. When Blair says he will '...harry, hassle and hound them (suspected drug dealers) until they give up or leave the country' all I can think of is Jean Charles de Menezes. He was a suspected terrorist who has now left the country with 8 bullet holes in his body. Unfortunately he was a completely innocent suspected terrorist. How many innocent suspected drug dealers would Blair allow to be harried hassled and hounded?
- sixtiesman

I visit my elderly parents who still live on the inner city council estate where I grew up. I witness the effects of crime and the fear of crime and wouldn't dream of discounting them. Nonetheless, I am more afraid of this government's attacks on our democracy and civil liberty than I am of either crime or terrorism. For the record, I am a woman in my fifties who most people would class as "respectable". I am not a member of any political party. It has taken a long time for me to realise how very dangerous this government has become.
- kazbe

If you are a dictator or an absolute monarch to justify controversial actions you need to claim the following:

• you are the voice of the people.
• you are fighting a threat.
• good citizens have nothing to fear.
• you are the Lord Protector.

These days it seems we can add the likes of Blair and other elected leaders who are stooping to such methods to conquer their critics.
- rebellion

No matter how much out of his depth he is, he is convinced that he is right and will try to force his ideas through by whatever means are available to him. This is a highly dangerous kind of leader, one whose mind set is that of a dictator or idealogue. Its time for him to go.
- Rovert

I could go on but you probably get the picture.

Blair's comments on the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill are also worth a closer look. Fortunately Charlie has already done a very good job of that over at perfect. Was Tony being deliberately misleading or does he genuinely not know what his lackeys are attempting with the LRRB? I think I know where I'd put my money.

Tags: News, Politics, Media, Tony Blair, Civil Liberty