Bliar supports freedom!

In the Observer our Dear Leader has written an opinion piece about he actually defends our freedom, not destroys it!

This government has introduced the Human Rights Act, so that, for the first time, a citizen can challenge the power of the state solely on the basis of an infringement of human rights,

… which the government is intent of breaching with every opportunity, e.g. ID cards, anti-terror laws, banning protests within 1 km of Parliament, etc. He doesn’t mention the Government and other public bodies cannot be stopped from using laws that breach the HRA and that if a law is declared to be “incompatible” with the HRA then it’s up to Parliament to decide whether to amend the law; if so, good; if not, tough! Let’s not forget that Tony has said that he’s willing to “amend” the HRA if he can’t get his own way.

and the Freedom of Information Act

… again, the above applies (see also various articles on the FoIA Blog, Your Right to Know, Guardian, etc as well as articles dotted around this blog).

… restricted the Prime Minister's right to nominate to the House of Lords

Yet, he’s intent on stuffing it full of his mates and people who gives loads of money to Labour (see the NuLabour blog).

People should be prevented from glorifying terrorism. You can say it is a breach of the right to free speech but in the real world, people get hurt when organisations encourage hatred.

Please, define “glorifying terrorism”! Supporting Nelson Mandela until the early-90s? Supporting the Palestinian government? Celebrating the 90th anniversary of the Easter Uprising? Saying that, due to the regeneration of Manchester city centre, it was a good thing that the IRA bombed it?

On ID cards, there is a host of arguments, irrespective of security, why their time has come.

Oddly, he doesn’t give them…

Most people already have a range of different cards, for workplace, bank or leisure. And, contrary to what is said, it will not be an offence not to carry one.

No-one has said that, people have said it’ll be an offence not to register for one.

I know it’s a cliché, but after reading this article, I can only come to the conclusion that according to him “Freedom is Slavery”…

UPDATE: Perfect have a more in-dpeth destruction of his ramblings.

UPDATE: this post has been linked to on Not Little England. There's probably some people who are confused by my statement that it's up to Parliament to decide to amend a law if it's declared to be "incompatible" with the HRA. You need to look at the HRA, specifically section 3 (laws are still valid even if declared "incompatible"), section 4 (incompatibility) and section 10 (Parliament's subsequent (in)action).

UPDATE: The World Weary Detective has a prediction on how ID cards will "prevent terrorism". I feel he may be being a bit sarcastic...