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Simon Phipps's personal commentary

Unexpected Radical

I spent a little time at the weekend reading the newspaper coverage of the campaign started by David Davis here in the UK. Davis was until Friday one of the most senior members of the opposition Conservative party, a political grouping that continues to struggle for credibility even in the face of an increasingly unpopular Labour Party in power under the humourless gaze of Gordon Brown (all Blair's values, none of his charisma).

Hearing Davis' speech on Friday as he resigned his seat in Parliament was a breath of fresh air, the first political statement I have heard over here for ages that has had any connection with my fears for our liberty. It seems to be a genuine act of principle, a grasping after one of the few tools at his disposal to put the issue on the agenda.

What has he done? Well, he was the shadow Home Secretary, the politician appointed by the opposition Conservatives to handle home affairs. It's one of the more visible political jobs in the UK and reflects his seniority after he was beaten to the Conservative leadership by David Cameron. He has resigned both that job and his seat in the House of Commons, with the goal of forcing an election in the constituency that put him there. He wants the election to be on a single issue and to highlight that issue in Britain. He's chosen that path becuase it was the only way to get the issue raised.

What is the issue? The triggering issue was the vote over whether the police in the UK should be able to hold a terrorist suspect without charge for two weeks longer than at present - a total of 42 days. The Labour government has been steamrollering the issue through, using the same disreputable "if you're against this you love terrorists" rhetoric that's become so common. The Conservatives, sensing a play in their own turf, have effectively rolled over and let it happen.

But more widely, the issue is the fact that the erosion of civil liberties in Britain has just gone too far. Davis said: "I will argue this by-election against the slow strangulation of fundamental British freedoms by this government." Not just "this government", David, your own lot are complicit too. In that context, it was going to take something pretty extreme to have a decent public debate on the subject.

And will we have that debate? Not if the establishment and the leader-writers have their way. Davis is currently at the focus of a set of campaigns intended to undermine his position by his own party, who fear he distracts from their "direction" and are framing this a sour grapes from the leadership loser, and the government, who want to paint him as an egotist playing "a farcical stunt". But I hope they have miscalculated. As The Guardian says:

Could David Davis somehow have stumbled across something the establishment has missed, an untapped anger with what the public sees as a snooping, heavy-handed state that spies on it through speed cameras and CCTV and microchips on its rubbish bins, that tramples its freedoms and makes sloppy mistakes with its private data?

Davis is the first voice with any chance of getting heard that has shouted "enough is enough, protect me by protecting me not by making me a slave". Despite my position usually being to the left of his, Davis has my support (maybe even some of my money) since this is an issue that needs tackling, and none of our current elected leaders seem to have the stomach for it. I'm with him, and I'm not the only one.

Labels: politics, UK

posted at 8:15 AM (UK) | Comment? (1 so far) | links to this post | |

Kate Walsh

It's been a while since I've liked one of the free tracks that iTunes is giving it's UK users, but this week's track - Talk of the Town, by Kate Walsh - is pretty good, if you like female singer-songwriter-guitarist stuff (which by now you may be working out that I do - although not exclusively, James!) Worth downloading and liberating to CD.

Update Apr-9: Well, another new talent you heard here first, folks! She hit the number one spot in the iTunes UK chart this weekend - check out the clipping on her blog. I just hope she'll be performing some place near where I am soon. The more I listen to this, the more hauntingly gorgeous I find it, and the way she just beat the system and cut out all those people-hating music middle-men bodes well for the future of music. More on today's blog.

Labels: iTunes, Music, UK

posted at 8:50 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

A Message to SCD43

If police officer SCD43 from the Met Police is reading, I can confirm that you took my photograph earlier without my consent. You were the guy outside the Houses of Parliament while I was walking from Waterloo to Westminster Central Hall, with the huge purpose-built camera rail (complete with Nikon D2H and Sony compact camcorder). You took a few photos of me I think before I noticed, and then went on to take portraits (latterly with my camera in while I took a picture of you) in a very in-your-face an unapologetic way.

Your colleague and minder GD1 told me you were "recording the events", presumably in conjunction with the Greenpeace protest that was happening next to Big Ben, but I found your behaviour threatening and chilling and did not in any way consent to it. Since you would not talk to me, I asked a local (female) bobby, PC CX698 about you, but she had no idea where you were from, so presumably you're associated with some special unit building dossiers on people associated with dissent - I noticed you and your minder leaving alone in a big van a few minutes later. If you're associating me with the protest you were in error (although I am now protesting, about your chilling behaviour).

Mind you, your behaviour did help the protestors because it made me ask Jamie, one of their orange-jacketed minders, what was happening. The fact all the Greenpeace minders were clearly marked in orange jackets should have given you a hint I was not associated with them, by the way. Anyway, Jamie told me that four people climbed a river crane outside Big Ben around 7:30am this morning to protest about "WMDs" ahead of a vote in Parliament. They had a banner reading "Tony ? WMDs" and I have to say they had some guts to be protesting that way. Unlike the people who behaved with chilling silence, recording the peaceful events in a flak jacket with a heavy minder. I wonder if it was your intent to politicise me, Mr SCD43?

Labels: Police, politics, UK

posted at 3:08 PM (UK) | Comment? (3 so far) | links to this post | |

British Police Say Lies Are OK - If The Cause Is Good

Originally uploaded by grewlike.

For as long as I can remember, my very best therapy has been a long drive, and since I got my Roadster it's been even sweeter - low emissions and still great fun. Right now I love my car, and the best place I can be is driving it somewhere a long way away on a clear day. The only problem with it is it really does like to drive at 80 MPH and I do have to watch carefully that it doesn't run away with me.

Which is to say I have been watching closely for speed cameras on a few long journeys recently, especially one to and from north Wales. I saw plenty of signs, but almost no cameras. Indeed, on some roads I saw no cameras at all. The same happened on a local journey yesterday. So what's the deal here? It seems to me this is actually an untruthful use of the signs, and I wonder what the social consequences are.

It might sound trivial, but I think it sets a tone in society. It says that it's OK to lie about the speed cameras because the objective is a good and important one. It says, with a nod and a wink, that the police know you know it's probably a lie but they like the uncertainty it causes in you. Which means the Police think it's fine to lie, and that we all know it and share the secret. That all has to swirl around in the collective subconscious, and I can't help feeling it contributes to the erosion to society that seems obvious over here.

Labels: Driving, Law, Police, Society, Trust, UK, Zeitgeist

posted at 12:20 AM (UK) | Comment? (3 so far) | links to this post | |