Monday, March 27, 2006

The Back Door Party

The government continues to argue that a law which makes it compulsory to register for an ID card when applying for a passport is consistent with their promise to make the scheme voluntary.

I'm not sure I can fully express my contempt for these people. This is why people hate Blair and his moronic wingmen. Instead of honest political debate, we get semantic trickery which any person with a modicum of decency would be embarrassed to even begin to pretend was a reasonable argument. They are, in fact, beyond contempt. A new word needs to be invented. What about despicontemendacible?

It's not compulsory to have a passport? Semantically true maybe, but reasonable? An honest approach? Have a look at the things they have to say to defend their position. I'd laugh but I don't find it even slightly funny.

I'm wondering whether Tony Blair has a passport. He's in Australia at the moment so I'm presuming he does. Does he honestly agree that holding a passport is genuinely voluntary? If he didn't have one, he'd clearly not be able to perform many of the functions necessary for his job. He'd have to resign. Not a bad thing in his case obviously, but what about the rest of us?

The manifesto commitment said it'd be voluntary. Every single person I've asked read it the same way. But not Blair and his shower of unscrupulous scumbags. They say that if you volunteer to have a passport, you'll also be volunteering to register on their monsterous database.

It's not right. Democracy isn't supposed to be about semantics, misrepresentations and downright nasty shits bullying anyone who disagrees into submission.

Not all Labour MPs are like this. Lynne Jones wrote a splendid letter to the idiot Andy Burnham. You can imagine him sitting there trying to concoct some spurious guff of a response in an attempt to deflect attention from the fact that he's not got any answers to the questions she asked. Do you think that he stopped to think about the rights and wrongs of the argument, even for a fraction of a second? If you do, you're giving the man a great deal more credit that his behavious deserves.

Voluntary. (adj.)
1. Done or undertaken of one's own free will: a voluntary decision to leave the job.
2. Acting or done willingly and without constraint or expectation of reward: a voluntary hostage; voluntary community work.
3. Normally controlled by or subject to individual volition: voluntary muscle contractions.
4. Capable of making choices; having the faculty of will.
5. Supported by contributions or charitable donations rather than by government appropriations: voluntary hospitals.
6. Law
a. Without legal obligation or consideration: a voluntary conveyance of property.
b. Done deliberately; intentional:

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