By©Muhammad Haque
0515 Hrs GMT
London
Thursday 12 June 2008
The 42 day detention ‘vote’, rigged by Brown as even the DAILY MAIL and the Tories are saying, was not an accident.
The so-called Labour rebel Mps, numbering between 35 and 40 and actually turning out to be 37, gave the game away!
Was that all there were in the former Labour Party who understood and had the courage to vote No?
Does that not say the real story about why Brown got away this time. And I anticipate, Brown may even get away the next time?
The truth is that there is no political democracy in the institutions in Britain. And there is none in society at large either. Not in a way that can count.
Not yet.
And here is my take today on why this is so.
It is to tart the examination, a great deal to do with Tony Benn.
He is paraded as the symbol of Opposition to authoritarianism,
yet he is NOT that at all.
Tony Benn popped up outside the Place of Westminster and stood very near ‘the Green’ , not far from the ‘active’ brigades of ‘faces’ that were lined up to be given their 15 seconds of ‘appearance’ after and about the 42 day detention charade that Gordon Brown staged in the House of commons on wednesday 11 June 2008.
But Benn was not there to make any statements on behalf of any [party’, not as such. But more as an elder statesman. No, as THE elder statesman
What he said when quizzed for BBC TV News channel by presenter Joanne Gosling was mostly accurate. But he was still wrong.
Why was Tony Benn wrong ?
Because like his so-called opponents and detractors, Benn is an 'issue' politician... Has been. He is most 'effective' [that is getting himself on the TV] by popping up on issues. That is why Benn has remained the 'only figure' to 'symbolise' the 'battles'. The 'media' [that distortion of the word ‘media’ was largely based on him, in the late 1970s and early 1980s] .
Tony Benn is like John Pilger. Pilger is a niche documentary maker and sometime world commentator. Pilger has created a trade that says that he knows better than what he continues racistly to treat as the Third World does about the state of empire, imperialism and poverty. And so is Benn. When it comes to lack of democracy and accountability in and via the UK parliament, Benn pops up offering his expertise.
But Benn has not got the expertise that society demands and deserves.
Benn is perpetuating the myth that he and his fan club will provide the answer.
He is a niche politician who has not really encouraged the idea of other voices to be recognised.
He has been a patron and patronising promoter of his fan club. And that is one of his main failings.
That failing goes to the very core and strikes at the heart of absent political resistance to authoritarianism and lack of democracy in Britain...
And this failing could not be more stark than in the fact on Wednesday 11 June 2008 when the UK House of Commons had a chamber that was hardly brimming with anxious MPs seeking to speak out against the 42 detention......
Benn DOES NOT refer to others as being more worthy of recognition [that is on the topical contemporary media platforms and similar] than himself.
Or at least along side himself. Or as much as himself
In fact , BENN refers to no one else.
Not aNYONE alive. Not anyone active anyway ay.
Those that he does refer to, if at all, [which he does very rarely] are either dead or in de facto retirement.
It follows therefore that Benn does NOT encourage others.
[To be continued]
No comments:
Post a Comment