Margaret on the Guillotine - Free Speech and the UK

I reckon most people would be amazed that I've not written anything substantial on here for a while. The ongoing saga of FC United's fight to build a new ground and community facility at Moston and Salford's lurch from the abyss to being owned by an rich and ambitious businessman should've been enough to persuade me to put "pen to paper", but a combination of laziness and real life have kind of gotten in the way.

There's not much to say on those two points now. I'm not wishing to tempt fate yet on Moston and after the roller coaster of emotions at Salford it's now time to see where the club is in 12/18/24 months time as to whether or not the good Doctor can deliver on his promises. I'm not even going to get into cricket just yet - the only bit of this season I'm looking forward to is seven new grounds, including the last five County Grounds I need for all eighteen.

No, the thing that's finally got me is the death of one Margaret Thatcher. Now, I'm sure that, as I've not exactly hidden my political leanings, my initial reaction will probably be easily guessed by most of you. However, the debate about whether or not she was a great leader or a horrible person who destroyed working communities has been done to death and I'm not even going to get into that. Nor am I going to enter the "only celebrate when her policies and beliefs have died out" debate. I'm not even going to argue the rights and wrongs of celebrating someone's death. Nope, I'm more concerned with the reaction of the authorities to any sort of protests.

At first it was the usual, to be expected divide with the Daily Mail and Telegraph leading the outraged charge that some people dare speak ill of the dead. Others tried to provide a more balanced view and argument on events, but got drowned out in the middle of the divide. Things started to get daft, however when there was a sudden spike in the number of people buying the Wizard of Oz song, "Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead".

Now, I laughed. And yes, I even ended up downloading a copy. A tongue in cheek, peaceful protest and expression of feeling at the damage her policies caused to a large part of the country. But no, the same people who rail against press regulation, the champions of free speech and the anti-"PC"  suddenly decided that this was free speech gone too far. You can't do this. Censor them, censor them! Won't somebody please think of the children, etcetera, ad infinitum, ad nauseum and so on...

First the Beeb agreed with free speech, said censorship was a dangerous thing and stayed they would play the 51 second long song. Following further wailing from the opposition corner they relented and the song, reaching number 2, was relegated to a small clip on a separate news programme.

Add in the fact that even Big Ben will now be silenced during the funeral and dawn raids are planned on the homes of potential protestors and you'd be forgiven for forgetting that we're meant to live in a free and democratic country. That is, of course, true. As long as the government and police don't disagree strongly with you, that is.

The free speech argument is always a funny one. Right wing groups hide behind it whenever they're out inciting hatred for whatever reason. The same could be said of some left wing groups, too, when they get going. As much as I hate the BNP, EDL, UKIP and the poisonous bile they spout (to varying degrees, obviously), I'll gladly defend their right to have those views. They only wish to divide people using fear and capitalising on ignorance and a lack of education but it's up to the rest of us to counter that with facts and education, rather than calling for those groups to be banned.

Equally, the same goes for Islamic extremists. Or extremists in any religion to be fair, I personally think they're all as dangerous as each other, but that's a separate post altogether. But the main example would be Abu Hamza. His hatred filled, anti Western preaching has called for him to be either kicked out of the country, jailed (which he has been) or, in the extreme cases, executed. Now, aside from preaching and inciting hatred, what has he done wrong? Fuck all, to be blunt.

He's no worse than the EDL or any other extremist group who use the same methods. But because his views don't fit in with the "love England or leave her" type mentality they call for extreme action against him and the easily led fall for it. Without realising the hypocrisy involved. But I digress...

The point is that free speech in this country has now been relegated to a moot bargaining tool and all true meaning has vanished. People will hide behind it one day and then completely disregard it the next. It's a dangerous position to be in and a worrying erosion of basic freedoms in this country when it goes as far as censoring a song from a popular 1930s musical.

Regardless of your opinion on Thatcher you should be able to mourn, celebrate or be completely nonplussed by her death. To suppress any of those options, to the point of planning arrests on people who haven't done anything, goes completely against everything a democracy should stand for. After all, we don't want to be taking political pointers from North Korea, do we?

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By the way, part way through writing this I learned of the bomb going off at the Boston Marathon. Humanity confuses and depresses me, sometimes.

Welcome to the Darkside...

Well, once again it's the first real update in f****** ages so I've missed a hell of a lot in that time. Meh.

So, we've got a new Government. Forgive me for being completely underwhelmed at the prospect of the Tories and Lib Dems cuddling up together. Cuts galore already and the Lib Dems swiftly moving away from many of their promises and the views of many of their members and supporters. And with the Coalition already being rocked by David Laws' resignation and the scandal around it, you could well be forgiven for wondering just how long this new Coalition is going to last. Then again, knowing the Tories, it could well be a case of how long before they find an excuse to get rid of all the Lib Dems holding Cabinet positions?

I'm sure I only need to touch on the vileness of Cameron. How anyone could trust him to run the country is beyond me. Smarmy and out of touch. As for the Tories overall... Thatcher. The '80s. Parts of the country run down and broken because of their policies. And if you really believe the bastards have changed and I'm just living in the past... Look up what's happened to those living under the jurisdiction of Hammersmith and Fulham Council. Working class? No money? Tough. Middle class or higher? Plenty of money? Come on over, we'll close off the public park every summer so you can watch polo matches.

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-welcome-to-cameron-land-1962318.html

As for the Lib Dems... Well, Clegg clearly wanted a position of power regardless of how he got it, nor the principles surrounding his supposed politics. He had the chance to form a progressive coalition with Labour but in the end, decided to jump onboard with his fellow Eton boy to get himself any kind of influence. He's already managed to piss off the more left-wing element of the Party, with many already defecting to Labour. If the Coalition rocks anymore then he could well have destroyed any credibility that they had in terms of being a genuine alternative vote for those wanting a progressive, left-wing Britain. Now I know how the citizens of the Galactic Republic felt as the Emporer swept in under a wave of promises and established the Empire. David Cameron = Senator Palpatine? Works for me - although I think Palpatine had more credibility.

So where does this leave Labour? Well, big changes are needed. But they didn't do that badly - most people are focusing on the last eighteen months, when in reality many good things were put in place (quite a few of which are now due to be taken away again) and the country was quite healthy. It took a global recession to bring things tumbling down in the end. However, it's a good opportunity for the Party to take a long, hard look at itself and move back towards the left in attempt to re-attract lost voters. The alliance with the Co-operative Party can itself only be a good thing for this. The Coalition and any semblance of Tory rule will eventually crack and leave people disillusioned once more. In that situation, Labour need to be ready and able to truly take Britain forward to a prosperous, progressive future for all.

The Green and Gold Campaign at Old Trafford seems to have reached it's natural end point. Now, however, is the time for direct action. The only way to rid MUFC of the Glazers is to starve them of money - don't renew. If OT is still full of people waving green and gold scarves and singing anti-Glazer songs next season then it's all been a big waste of time. The Red Knights aren't going to come galloping to the rescue - and are they really to be trusted? Doubtful. Just stop giving them your cash - although I'm sure those who say supporting the team is more important than the long term future of the club will no doubt side with David Gill's sickening comments and see that most people just keep turning up to watch. Thank the Lord for FC United of Manchester. Co-operative, supporter-owned football. It's the future.

Lancashire have surprised me this season, although the struggle to beat Warwickshire followed by the struggle against Essex have brought everyone back down to Earth. Sitting in third with not a lot separating us, Yorkshire and Notts is bloody marvellous - as is being the only Championship side unbeaten in both divisions. Marvellous. Just a pity the rain seems set to direct the first Roses match this year to a draw, as Lancs are well and truly in the driving seat. Let's just hope there's a few more wins to come yet.

England made fairly heavy weather of the first test against Bangladesh - although full credit must go to the touring side for their efforts, particularly with the bat. It's great to see two Bangladeshis on the honours board at Lord's. I've got a ticket for the first day at OT - should be a good day's play in prospect.

Well, that about wraps things up. I should do this more often!

I know this is late...

But I've been a bit busy lately.

Anyway, I just wanted to say that, if you voted for the BNP, you're a c*nt.

This country's problems can not be solved by kicking out anyone who's black.

The BNP have no other realistic policies in place that would make a positive impact on the country.

Think on next time. If you voted for them, be ashamed and next time vote for someone who can make a difference. If you didn't vote at all... Get off your arse next time.

Money, money, money...

First off, this is being updated on my phone via email. So blame spelling and grammar errors on predictive text!

So, then. The credit crunch. Sorry, but it's bollocks. As far as I'm concerned we've been in a recession for 25 fucking years. I've never had money to plough back into the economy, I've always been screwed over by the tax man and... Well, you get the picture.

But the main beef I have is the man who told everyone we need to stop borrowing so much and get out of the loan culture for the good of the country (my words, not his). Gordon fucking Brown. The man who, as Chancellor, borrowed like fuck and increased our country's national debt. Yeah, you're in such a fucking great position to preach about frivolities with money, aren't you?!

So where does the new budget leave us? Well, I'm no financial expert, but I can't see it making much difference to me. We're likely to pay through the nose for it in the future, too. That doesn't mean I trust the Tories, either. I'd rather have the Monster Raving Loonies in charge, to be frank.

We'll just have to see how it all goes, I guess. Just pray this record national debt we're heading into doesn't turn us into a third world country. Sponsor a British child charities, coming to a wealthy country near you.