This is a phoney war. It is a tactic called ‘triangulation’ perfected for that five-star cynic Bill Clinton by the squalid political fixer Dick Morris – and originally introduced to this country by the Blair machine whose every method has been slavishly copied by Mr Cameron.
Dave's stage rage - and why he needs this Court of Human Wrongs
His noisy stage rage over the latest decision by the so-called ‘Supreme Court’, concerning the treatment of sex offenders, is just as incredible.
Apart from anything else, the ‘Supreme Court’ (which is actually nothing of the sort) is right about this. English law, stretching back to Magna Carta, believes in limited punishment of bad deeds, not the lifetime totalitarian supervision of criminals. As it is, we get no punishment and a lot of bureaucracy and useless ‘supervision’.
Stage rage: Prime Minister David Cameron said he spoke for the nation when he felt physically ill about prisoners getting the vote
I have seen nothing in Mr Cameron’s bearing, conversation, background or nature to suggest that he cares even slightly about crime and punishment. Bullingdon Club graduates, and people who won’t come clean about whether they have used illegal drugs in the past, are pretty relaxed about law and order, as well they might be. For them, the pain and loss of modern Britain are things that happen to somebody else, far, far away.
What’s more, we should remember that Mr Cameron is not some powerless red-faced major in a decayed spa town, fizzing with frustrated anger over his fourth brandy and ginger ale.
He is the Prime Minister. He writes the Queen’s Speech. He commands the whips, who drive our pathetic, obedient MPs this way and that into the voting lobbies.
If he were ‘physically sick’ about something, then he could act upon it or resign in the attempt. Actually, as we now know for certain from leaked state documents, the Strasbourg Court of Human Wrongs is a cardboard monster, long used as an excuse by Whitehall and Westminster liberals for implementing policies they secretly desire, but daren’t put before the voters. If we defy it, it has no powers to enforce its will.
This is a phoney war. It is a tactic called ‘triangulation’ perfected for that five-star cynic Bill Clinton by the squalid political fixer Dick Morris – and originally introduced to this country by the Blair machine whose every method has been slavishly copied by Mr Cameron.
The world’s media have decided that the removal of Egypt’s government is a good thing. This is odd. What is in effect mob rule, with all the horrible dangers involved, is dignified instead as ‘people power’, which sounds so much nicer. The violent sexual assault on a Western woman, tinged with Judophobia, doesn’t fit this picture.
So it leaks out only many days later.
Ordeal: CBS News correspondent Lara Logan pictured shortly before she was assaulted in Tahrir Square in Cairo after becoming separated from her TV crew. There is no suggestion any of the men pictured were involved in the attack
Anyone who has spent time talking to Egyptians (or Arabs in general) knows that a disgraceful and shaming Judophobia is common in that part of the world, even among educated and otherwise civilised people. Only a very few reports of the Cairo revolt showed posters of the deposed President Mubarak defaced with crude Stars of David reminiscent of Nazi graffiti.
I suspect the men involved also regarded Ms Logan’s perfectly normal Western dress as improper and sluttish, another aspect of this ‘lovely, warm-hearted’ crowd that the media preferred not to mention.
I have in the past encountered the rough edge of the Egyptian security state – my photographer colleague Philip Ide was roughly seized and stripped of his equipment, and people who had been talking to me about the Iraq War arrested.
I do not wish to defend it, though I wonder if the new Egyptian regime will abandon the thuggery and torture or use them for its own ends.
Mr Paxman expressed the bog-standard view of the London Left about the Iraq War (and for once they were right) that the country had been taken to war thanks to lies told by Mr Blair. And he made some rude remarks about the tightness of Mr Blair’s trousers.
There is nothing remotely surprising about this. Who can doubt that Mr Paxman has opinions? Who would be surprised to know that they are quite like those of the Guardian?
But we are supposed to pretend that he miraculously forgets these views while working for the BBC, that they never influence his tone, his priorities, his line of questioning or his attitude to his interviewees.
He says: ‘Forty per cent of the members who participated in the election of David Cameron are no longer members. Why? Because the voluntary party is treated with contempt.’
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