I Lose my Biggest Fan - Plus Other Mishaps, Ripostes and Encounters

A Mr Spencer says he may have ceased to be my ‘biggest fan’, apparently because I am prepared to listen to, and see good qualities in, some of my opponents. If he regards this as a fault, then I shall be pleased to lose him as a fan of any size.

 

Mr Bunker, that man of mystery still prevented by unnamed forces from even considering the possibility that God might exist, nonetheless has no difficulty with carrying a compulsory state-issued card, and registering himself with the authorities. That, I’m afraid, is a reflection upon him, and perhaps on what he is used to in Germany. The states which make up modern Germany were almost all despotisms in which the inhabitant was the unquestioning servant of that state. If the state accuses you of a crime in such jurisdictions, your guilt is presumed in practice (though in modern times lip service may be paid to the presumption of innocence) and you may be confined almost indefinitely while you await a trial in which all those who rule on your guilt will be employees of the state. You will be expected to co-operate with your own prosecution. In all matters you must acount for yourself to the state, rather than the other way round. 

 

In Britain until recently we had a  different tradition, in which the state , in theory and practice, was the servant of the individual. That is why in Britain the police must identify themselves to us, but we do not have to identify ourselves to the police. As recently as the 1950s,we still had enough guts, and enough good judges, to throw off the useless identity card system imposed on us for no good reason during the war. The introduction of identity cards in this country would complete and make irreversible the process by which a free country has, slice by salami slice, been turned into a continental jurisdiction. Such cards are the material embodiment of the presumption of guilt, and of the subservience of the individual to the state. As I’ve often said, those who won’t worship God will usually end up worshipping earthly power instead.

 

‘Rosaleen’ makes the invariable false assumption of Irish nationalist enthusiasts, that opposition to the criminal terror gangs of the IRA and the ‘Loyalist’ equivalents is in some way anti-Irish. On the contrary, it is simply pro-human.(anti-kidnap, anti-abduction, anti burning people to death, anti-blowing people to bits, etc etc) . Does she really think I am either ignorant of, or unmoved by, or unashamed by the Irish famine?  I would urge her to read, at least, this article

 

http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2012/10/the-dangerous-edge-of-things-a-visit-to-londonderry.html

 

Mr ‘F’ says I ‘never’ criticize the Labour Party. This is simply not true. I have been a newspaper columnist now, with a  small break, since the late 1990s. In that time I have also written several books on public policy, and taken part in numberless broadcasting appearances and debates. In these appearances,   articles, and  books, I think Mr ‘F’ will have no difficulty in finding quite a lot of criticism of the Labour Party, in and out of government.  

What he actually means is that I refuse to join in a partisan campaign to save the Tory party from its deserved fate at the next election. Why should I? I loathe the Tory party for the same reason as I loathe the Labour Party. It is the enemy of Britain. But at least the Labour party offers itself to the public as a left-wing anti-British, pro-EU pro-crime anti-education party that despises the armed forces. The Tories , who are the same in all respects, lie about their aims and purpose and so occupy the seats in Parliament that should be held by a pro-British party. It is a matter of urgency that they are destroyed so that this change can happen.

 

The nature of the government under which we suffer will be identical whoever wins the next election. The nature of the future will be entirely different if the Tories collapse. I do indeed advise principled Conservatives to vote Labour (note the capital ‘C’ – those conservatives who have already abandoned the Tory Party forever have no need to do so). In this way they would achieve the same sort of government they seem to desire, but could also distance themselves from the shameful campaign of personal vilification being directed against Ed Miliband.