How the UK Labour Party Handles Dissenters

The Labour Party and in particular, Tony Blair, have been forced to apologise after an 83 year old man was physically manhandled out of the annual party Conference for heckling Jack Straw, Foreign Secretary, during his speech on Wednesday.

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The party organisers are blaming over zealous stewards / security for the matter - and this is not the only example of apparently over zealous security at the conference. Austin Mitchell, a Labour MP, also crossed swords with conference security.

I feel despair when the ruling party of a supposedly democratic nation such as the UK do not allow their own members to debate issues central to the foreign policy that they are undertaking. Of course, they probably knew that they would be defeated on the issue and looked to the headlines that such a defeat would bring - of course now they're looking at different but I think far more damaging headlines.

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[edit on 1-10-2005 by asala]

You really have to watch those 83 year olds.

Actually, I'm not being all that facetious. My father is about to turn 82. These men come from the "greatest generation". They are the ones that survived the spread of Nazi hatred and Hitler/Stalin/Mussolini/and that Japanese dude whose name I never can remember.

An 83 year old has two weapons that make today's politicians' underwear wad up on them...they were there to know how politics gone bad can kill humanity, and they're in the last days of a journey that they may very well have decided they're not going to end by going quietly into that sweet night.

Listen to these old people. They're dropping like flies and there's a lot of experiential knowledge going with them.

Hmmm, great way to encourage political debate isn't it.

Channel 4 news reported that the elderly gentleman attempted to re-enter the conference hall some time later and was apprehended under the prevention of terrorism act! Says it all really doesn't it!!!

Lauren Booth (Cherie Blair's sister) was interviewed too and said that she was shadowed by a rather large security guard after she made an off the cuff remark about how she was going to heckle a speech regarding the Iraq war.

Oh, but the Labour Party apologise for the incident. Yeah, they are sorry they got caught on camera more like. As the reporter said, if a similar incident had occured at, say, a CCP conference, the story would have been twice round the world by now.

And did anyone else hear that the leader of the fuel protesters was arrested under the prevention of terrorism act.

Freedom of speech...don't make me laugh!!!


Edit : 'apprenehended ' isn't a real word!

[edit on 29-9-2005 by KhieuSamphan]

This is the kind of thing that is going to happen more and more as the new laws here in Australia take hold.


Soon it will be illegal to dissent against anything.