I forget who it was in the cabinet that infamously sent an email out on the day of the Hatfield train crash, suggesting that it would be a rather opportune moment to bury bad news, but you have to feel at the moment that a few people might just be thinking the same thing. Obviously the circumstances are considerably different, and the burial of bad news today wouldn’t be quite as reprehensible as on the same day as a fatal train crash of course, but if I had some bad news….
…so I had a little look through the stories not quite making the headlines today (for those of you not in the know the main story today is the impending implosion of the capital markets and all that the west holds dear – more on which at a later date no doubt).
The first thing I came across was the now almost forgotten plea by the government to pass a law allowing the police to detain suspected terrorists without charge for a maximum of 42 days. This is a 14 day increase from the current limit of 28 days. Now, before you get all fired up and start shouting “guantanamo” at the computer screen, don’t worry I am now here to argue in favour of such a law. Indeed, the man I heard on the radio today arguing in favour of the change gave me all the ammo I need to argue against it. He was asked, and I wish I could remember his name so I could send him a letter of thanks, whether the change was a reaction to the current deadline of 28 days not being long enough, and specifically whether that deadline had indeed been broken regularly to prompt such a move.
His reply was straight out of the Tory Guide to Blustering and Bumbling, except of course he was a New Labour MP (again, more on that subject later too I promise). He said, while no doubt turning red and removing his monocle, “oh, ah, but yes that’s not the point now is it, yes ok 28 days has been fine until now, but what about tomorrow?” you could almost here his pipe fall out of his mouth as he became more animated. The point here of course is that the House of Lords, whose job it is to decide on such matters, have rejected the proposal my a rather crushing majority. Unfortunately they do not move in the same intelligence circles as the chap from the radio, who is aware of the impending doom that will befall us all tomorrow. Again, forgive the rambling, but I can’t help but feel that on any other day this would be somewhat newsworthy, particularly given who Gordon Brown fought for this bill to even pass the House of Commons. Indeed I will go as far as to say that on any other day, such a crushing defeat for old Gordon may have lead to renewed calls for a leadership election within New Labour.
I admit that this isn’t necessarily a concrete case of burying bad news, given that the debate in the Lords had been planned for today, but you cant help but feel that Gordon will be breathing a sigh of relief into his cocoa tonight.
The second story that caught my eye today was the interview in The Times with the interim Iraqi Prime Minister/Interim US puppet Nouri al-Maliki. The highlight of his interview was his assertion that British Troops should leave the south of the country, and Basra in particular, where they are no longer needed. I will refrain from rehashing the old War arguments here, but if the guy in charge of the country, who our boys are supposed to be helping, tells us it is time to bring our troops home, then maybe we should listen? Of course, the cynics among you will suggest that bringing home a few thousand troops into a recession-dogged economic climate might not be the best thing to do economically speaking, as a certain percentage would immediately leave the forces to seek alternative employment, far better to leave them where they are in full employment.
It will be interesting to see what is made of this in the press over the next few days, but again I feel that at any other time this would be headline news…
Of course, what is hogging the headlines at the moment is the ongoing credit crisis, the impending collapse of numerous financial institutions, the nationalisation of countless more, the complete lack of accountability/blame in the whole mess, the reactions of the governments of the world and essentially the potential death by a thousand cuts of capitalism…but I shall save that for my next post!
Bye for now
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