Update: It’s back – the post that would not die. Deleted in a fit of pique on Friday afternoon, the BBC decided to link to it after its deletion, while it was still in Google’s cache (or perhaps they bookmarked it). So I’ve decided to resurrect the post, even if it does make me look a prat – you’ll see why.
I will add that whether they were Blair’s words (which they weren’t) or Oliver’s, they’re right on the money. The Labour Party isn’t so desperate for activists it should just accept anyone with a desire for social justice. There has to be an acceptance that Labour’s aims and policies are broadly right, or at least that where Labour are wrong, the argument can be won with peaceful debate. Some people with less than reputable pasts need to confront them before they can claim to be ‘one of us’ and expect our solidarity.
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Oliver Kamm has the full text of Tony Blair’s statement regarding the eviction of Walter Wolfgang from the Labour Party Conference, and it’s really quite extraordinary. I found it difficult to believe Blair was capable of such a piece, but, in the absence of any other reports, I have to accept it is true. Take this final section:
The party that I lead played a noble role in establishing the post-war institutions and alliances that preserved collective security and eventually liberated Eastern Europe from tyranny. I am proud of the tradition of militant anti-Communism that my party has, at its best, embodied. That position is a prerequisite for a democratic party of the Left, in the same way, and for the same reason, that militant anti-fascism is. Walter Wolfgang has dedicated his political life to another cause. His ejection from the Labour Conference yesterday was a belated recognition of the party’s failure to eject him from membership at any time in the previous five decades. For that failure, I apologise once more.
Contrast it with these, from the comments of BBC web site readers:
It must have felt for the 82-year-old chap quite frightening, and to imagine that he may well have experienced the same thing during his young years as a citizen in Nazi Germany. Has this not proven at long last the type of society we are living in and what remains for the future?
At this rate New Labour will simply abolish all other “dissenting” political parties, arrest those disagreeing for anti-state activities, and run the country for the benefit of the governing elite, much like East Germany, for example. Still glad you voted Labour?
For the first time I felt a little frightened about the way our politics is going. There is more than a hint of the Orwellian vision [?] creeping into this country.
Nice to see people have a clear idea what life must have been like under fascist/totalitarianism regimes.
Well, at least some good’s come out it – we’ve all got yet another reason to be glad that Oviler Kamm is no longer a member of the Labour Party.
But Andrew, that’s quite clearly a Kamm-authored spoof, written as a vehicle for Kamm’s own criticisms of Wolfgang’s politics. You don’t have to accept it’s true at all.
I’m sure as Tom says it is a spoof, but the whole incident does raise the question of democracy within the party.
I’m sure most of us would agree that something had to be done about militant in the 1980’s and we all accept that the party does have to ‘play to the media’ to win elections but where does this seriously cross the line where we are seriously suppressing freedom of speech. I find the notion of throwing anybody out of the party for expressing their opinion detestable. Once again I think it is the electoral system to blame. Labour is always going to be a broad church under this system, the socialists have been suppressed but they have nowhere else to go except oblivion. Is this democracy?
Hmm, perhaps I have been hoodwinked. I must say it did sound a lot like OK himself, but I simple-mindedly trusted the words I saw in black and white, presuming the writer to have enough integrity to at least put a
at the end. Will try to get to the bottom of it.
the BBC decided to link to it after its deletion, while it was still in Google’s cache (or perhaps they bookmarked it)
Okay, so I tend to cut and paste interesting blog posts and their URLs. But I don’t tend to check whether they’re still there(!) And there’s a bit of a gap between writing and publication.
Can see why it would have taken you aback, though!
ATB,
Alan Connor
Fair point, Alan, I committed one of the cardinal sins of blogging – and what a great bit of timing!
whilst there is no direct comparison between the reality of Toltalitarianism and what happened here, the point about us slipping towards a Police State is still valid.
I remember being assured that the new anti-terrorism laws would not be applied except in extremity. But it would seem that every copper with a dim recolection of them will use them against ANY political activist who upsets a member of the Government.