Freedoms Are Granted By The Politcal Class

In his book, "The Assault on Liberty", Dominic Raab, now Conservative MP for Esher & Walton, states that liberty matters and queries what has happened in government to create the tyranny that is now Britain. Stating that as a rich and powerful nation, our political ideas having been disseminated around the world, it comments that it is ironic that we in Britain are slowly disbanding the very characteristics that have made us and others so successful and civilized. Raab also states that it is equally ironic that we are doing so in response to a threat from people that have no respect for those values, people who despise tolerance and liberty.

By inference, Raab is discussing the threat of terrorism, however this accusation can also be directed at our political class, both Labour and the Coalition. This is illustrated in a comment piece which appeared in Sunday's Telegraph by David Cameron and Nick Clegg - a piece entitled "The new politics is bold and above all it is working". Our country is supposed to be a 'free' country yet echoing the caption above, our freedoms are those allowed us by the political class. In their comment piece Cameron and Clegg write:

"We came together to change our country for the better in every way. As as we go about fixing our economy, society and political system......"

Never has a truer word been written where the use of 'fixing' is concerned when considering our society and political system. 

Consider this statement:

"Our second animating purpose is putting power in people's hands. There needs to be a shift of power from Whitehall and the state to people and their communities. This power shift is visible in our plans for local government, public service reform and crucially political reform.......and giving voters the power to recall their MPs."

It is well known that central government will still control the purse strings, that central government will 'control' how that 'devolved power' - and I use the words 'devolved power' in the most sarcastic and cynical sense - is used. It is also a fact that voters will only have the 'power' to recall their MPs once the House of Commons has decided that there is a case to answer - in other words it is MPs themselves who have the power of recall, not the voters.

Discussing the question of reform of the voting system, Cameron and Clegg write:

"We have different views on the future of our voting system. But we both recognise that there are concerns about the current system. And we agree that the decision is not, in any case, for government alone. It should be taken by the people themselves. That is why both our parties support putting this question to a referendum next May."

However, the people are not being given a choice of which voting system they would like, instead they are being presented with an extremely limited choice, one decided by the political class.

In a statement unsourced but widely attributed, Benjamin Franklin is reputed to have said that "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote." and it is worth noting that if an individual is to have liberty then he/she also has the right of choice in matters affecting them.Of course one area of choice we most definitely are not being given is the right to choose whether our country is to remain a -self-governing nation - one able to decide its own laws, how and with whom we trade and how we wish our society to evolve.

In a speech given at the University of Westminster on 25th October 2007, Gordon Brown said:

"The character of our country will be defined by how we write the next chapter of British liberty - by whether we do so responsibly and in a way that respect and builds on our traditions and progressively adds to and enlarges rather than reduces the sphere of freedom."

It is a pity that the political class have not yet recognised and accepted that it is for us, the people, to decide how we write the next chapter of British liberty!