(not satire – sadly – it’s the UK today!)
The UK seems to have had a total irony bypass.
Last week, UK politicians from all parties were happily attacking a satirical poster for being offensive on the very same day they were supposedly supporting the right for satire to be offensive in Paris.
And now – without a trace of irony – David Cameron has announced that if the Tories win the next election, they will clamp down on freedom of expression in the UK in response to attacks on freedom of expression in France.
Quite frankly I’m outraged.
How on earth are satirists supposed to operate in the UK if our political leaders insist on satirising themselves so much better than we ever could?
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The Coalition Government Colouring and Activity Book is now available for download as a PDF and in print:
Pride's Purge 
Sounds an awful like the old chestnut from Vietnam – something along the lines of: ‘we must burn the village in order to protect it’.
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What is free speech. People are scared these days to express an opinion
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Cameron can do what he wants and he knows it.
After all who else can people vote for?
Labour? They invented the whole ‘mastering the internet’ scheme that was the precursor for many of the programs revealed by Snowden and supported the filtering of internet connections (lest we forget Labour tried to out-do the tories by suggesting that people ‘opt-in’ to having unfiltered & uncensored connections).
The lib dems? But they supported the ’emergency’ legislation that was DRIPA.
There is no choice out there for people that believe in both freedom of expression and privacy. Nobody.
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From a country that forbids free speech (Thailand) I knew that the outrage in Paris would cause much delight with the Tory’s in Britain. MORE censorship Oh ! Less freedoms for the scum bags who should know their place in society Ooooooh. Stop criticism of our great policies. YES YES OH! Need to change my trousers again.
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If voting made any difference, there wouldn’t be a vote. All politicians are duplicitous and out for personal gain….and are compromised by the ‘you-know-whos’ – those who can never be criticized. ‘Freedom of expression’? what a joke!
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They need to be free to evict soup kitchen volunteers at Christmas without those pesky journalists capturing it on their cameras.
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seurrep said:
“There is no choice out there for people that believe in both freedom of expression and privacy. Nobody.”
Pretty much sums it up.
Maybe we should vote in a party we’ve never had before.
Perhaps a party that never gets a mention in the media.
A party like the Greens say?
They’ve never broken a promise yet… as far as I know.
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Reblogged this on markcatlin3695's Blog.
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Pingback: Tories respond to attacks on freedom of speech in Paris by clamping down on it in UK | Alternative News Network
UNDER THE CATEGORY ‘WITHOUT SO MUCH AS A HINT OF FUCKING IRONY’
Tax justice campaigner Richard Murphy yesterday posted a screen shot of a letter received by (amongst others) blogger Guido Fawkes from the Electoral Commission warning him on the rules of ‘political campaigning ‘ in an election years.
The rules of course are part of the gagging bill passed by this Government with the assent of all major political parties.
When interviewed in Paris on Sunday the buffoon Cameron said he was marching to protect ‘our values ‘. Sadly no-one had the wit to ask him what values he meant.
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Reblogged this on Beastrabban’s Weblog and commented:
This really continues the authoritarian trend in politics begun by Thatcher. The British state suspects everyone of being somehow subversive or criminal. Hence the demands for more powers to be given to spy on us by the government, and for confidential records to be shared with other departments of state, all in the interests of catching terrorists, criminals or fraudsters. In the 18th century the aristocracy feared ‘King Mob’ and sneered at us proles as ‘the democracy’. They still fear the proles, and have a deep distrust of democracy, as the Snoopers’ Charter and plans to strip voting rights from the Irish, Pakistanis, Indians and other members of the Commonwealth shows.
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Pingback: Tories respond to attacks on freedom of speech in Paris by clamping down on it in UK – Pride’s Purge | Vox Political
Reblogged this on gingerblokeblog.
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@seurrep said…
“There is no choice out there for people that believe in both freedom of expression and privacy. Nobody.”
Haven’t you heard of the Green Party? They are against our surveillance state and do campaign and protest against the snooper’s charter, TTIP & similar. Have you seen Caroline Lucas get arrested? You won’t see any of the usual suspects taking part in protests!
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Martin Snell
is their any footage of ‘our gloriously leader’s’ taking part in any march? anyone can go into a closet and make a speech…freedom of speech which implies a public forum..means more than anything the right to be heard by those who don’t want to hear the message of the speech…preaching to the converted becomes plain pointless…
if people cannot assemble and speak/shout outside ie parliament there is no freedom/right to be heard…ranting in a distant side street lets off steam, but it is not being heard, and steam builds up again or mind collapses in numbed frustration…we have in reality very little freedom to be heard in the UK…
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David Cameron says that any one who disrespects the Profit in Britain is worthy of death, because Britain is a Capitalist Society run mostly by Profits.
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“if people cannot assemble and speak/shout outside ie parliament there is no freedom/right to be heard…ranting in a distant side street lets off steam, but it is not being heard, and steam builds up again or mind collapses in numbed frustration…we have in reality very little freedom to be heard in the UK…”
I have been in that very situation, being forced by police to move to another street and herded behind barriers placed far away from target building, etc. I’ve also been called a “terrorist” by met police on a few occasions. I’ve never been violent in any of the protests I’ve taken part in, let alone being a “terrorist” ffs!!
I believe and have said often that we do NOT live in any actual democracy, when people argue against me I tell them to enter the city of London and try to peacefully protest with others at financial or parliamentary targets, and see how quickly you’re threatened with arrest if you don’t leave! Not that this has stopped me, I’ve had to become wise to the police state/thugs. Even though I’ve been kettled six times in the past, I now know how to avoid it, my concentration is no longer compromised! 😉
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The Miners Strike was the defining moment in the modern era for the media to portray the visciousness of the state machine against workers in struggle not just for their jobs but for a whole way of life. The Trade Unions were emasculated with anti union legislation and as a consequence there has been no solidarity between them. The donkeys that lead the movement during this era used every excuse under the sun to avoid supporting the miners and Murdoch and his cohorts manipulated the people by the power of the press to turn them against the lads and their womenfolk.
I remember days on the streets of London when we assembled and marched in our thousands down Whitehall and past Parliament the shame was it was when we had a Labour government but having said that we got changes. The repression we have now is as bad as it has ever been in my memory. We kid ourselves if we think they are not illegally monitoring people now. They denied they did it in the Miners Strike but there is plenty of anecdotes of how Maggie’s army, having phone tapped the lads, were deliberately sent to various locations and watched from a distance scratching their arses and heads wondering where the pickets where meanwhile the lads had gone in the opposite direction or not gone anywhere at all. If ever there was a group of people needed to confound this bunch of cretins we could call on them for their organisational skills. With all this surveillance we will have to go back to keeping pigeons.
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well, i am voting for the ukip – and so you all can too. you will have less p.c. and less b.s. – i live in france right now, and yes, they have a lot more freedoms than people have in the uk. – might add that i cannot see the french losing their freedom of speech over this ordeal.
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Well I’m NOT surprised to see UKIP getting their oar in!!
I imagine you think many of us should get back to “bongo bongo land”?? Not forgetting the very many instances of homophobia, sexism and continuous racism/xenophobia/bigotry, but then again you DO say “you will have less p.c.”
*puts head in hands*
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odd reply. smile.
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Ubuntu party, Michael Tellinger is already fielding 250 candidates. Excellent interview on Richie Allen Show, Volcania Radio.
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A right to freedom of expression? Suddenly out of the blue, I have a cluster of middle class bloggers and one writer cocking a snoop at my right to write as I do! Would I mind normally? Well if I choose to write about British imperialism and slavery which were little different to what was being practised against the working classes during that time fram I don’t expect a bunch of white left leaning liberals to make a point of loudly taking offence. What are they really offended about? The satirical references to empire of my writing about the sacred cow of slavery and imperial oppression?
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What is the satirical poster is that uk politicians were recently critising
[It’s in the link in the blogpost: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jan/08/miliband-labour-councillor-retweet-auschwitz-tory-poster ] -TOM
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The Tories are not clamping down on free speech, they just want to listen! Labour on the other hand, were (and presumably still are) committed to restricting free speech.
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You are joking – or you mean listening as in illegal GCHQ tapping all your phone calls, emails, letters etc?
And the latest raft of clamping down on freedom of speech such as May is wheeling out after Paris??
Superb article by Greenwald in The Intercept today.
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Next move – Dave is masterbating over a cornish pasty (in the window of number 10) whilst watching internet porn…
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I don’t trust any of the big three parties, think UKIP is far right and racist, and the Greens and TUSC have no hope of getting anywhere at the polls. I don’t ask much from the government. I want an uncensored internet (although I don’t mind if they get rid of child porn without spoiling the rest of the internet) and I don’t want to be starved to death because I won’t work as slave labour for what I should get by right of being born here.
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@amnesiaclinic – Yes, that’s exactly what I meant (I was taking the p*ss). The serious point is that it’s wrong to describe this as clamping down on free speech, because it’s not. It is an insidious and dangerous proposal though. On the other hand, the Labour law making it illegal to insult people very obviously IS a restriction on free speech.
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Reblogged this on Britain Isn't Eating.
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