The Policy Blender

David Irving is to stand trial for comments he made in the eighties regarding the holocaust. The small matter that Irving has now publicly stated that he was wrong and that he no longer holds the beliefs for which he is being prosecuted is deemed irrelevant. Irving held and articulated beliefs that deviated from the accepted version of history and for that he will be punished.

A spokesman from the Austrian Ministry of Justice did not say today:

“He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.”

Make no mistake; Irving is a pretty nasty piece of work with some unsavoury opinions and associates. For this he should rightly be criticised. But it is not the job of any state institution, or indeed any state, to hold Irving to account for his views. In a free society, that role falls to the individual to form his own opinion and the media to articulate the facts. State imposed censorship or even its bastard child, self-censorship, do not a sustainable society make.

Imagine our surprise if in a couple years time those nice quiet Iranians who’ve never said anything that deviates from our idyllic view of life start chucking nukes at Israel.

A dead duck in France has tested positive for Bird Flu. President Chirac, who this week became the first French leader to visit Thailand since the two countries established diplomatic relations 150 years ago was unavailable for comment.

The dead duck tested positive for H5N1 Asian influenza following a failed bid for the 2012 Olympics and a “No” vote in the referendum on the European Constitution.

Defra officials have so far refused to comment on the rumours coming from Washington that Bush has approved the secondment of Vice President Dick Cheney to help with Britain’s forthcoming Bird Flu problems.

Cheney is said to be keen to help prevent Bird Flu from reaching Britain by hanging around on the south coast with a shotgun picking off migrating birds. White House official spokesman Scott McClellan was tight-lipped when asked what the chances were of Cheney “accidentally shooting at France”.

So it’s day three of the Government’s latest drive towards the New Labour totalitarian utopia. Day One gave us the ID cards vote. Day Two gave us a ban on smoking. Today the government passed more needless legislation on terrorism through the commons. The legislation adds nothing to existing laws; indeed as it’s drafted by morons it actually serves to obfuscate the current powers which were used to successfully convict Abu Hamza.

The Conservatives and LibDems have highlighted the above facts and stated continuously that the Government is politicising a serious issue by picking a fight that doesn’t need to be fought.

Charles Clarke has let it be known throughout the course of the day that he believes the Conservatives and the LibDems only opposed the use of the needlessly ambiguous word “glorification” in the legislation because they were siding with the terrorists.

It’s a shameful indictment of our media class that the Government have been able to spin this issue to this extent. Indeed, following a constructive interview with Dominic Grieve and Charles Clarke this morning on Radio 4’s Today programme, the BBC then used only a clip of Clarke’s paranoid and delusional ramblings for their half-hourly bullet-ins.

A laughable if not worrying example of the slapdash conception and implementation of this legislation is that under the new laws Bertie Ahern, Irish taoiseach could be arrested the next time he comes to the UK if he commemorates the 1916 Easter Rising this year. Whilst Grumpy Gord was playing at being PM earlier this week, Tony Blair was at the opening of a memorial to former terrorist group the ANC with Nelson Mandela in Soweto.

To further underline this irony, Clarke gave further indications of his delusional grip on reality by indicating that a terrorist group was defined as “anyone who opposes or wants to overthrow a country's government”.

Freddie Laker, a pioneer of the modern no-frills airlines, died in Miami yesterday, at the age of 83.

Details of his funeral have already been announced: there is no guest list, mourners are advised to bring their own food, seating in the Church is not reserved and the service will take place next Wednesday or maybe Thursday.

There was some comment on this site a while ago about a graph from ConservativeHome which seemed to be implying the Tories were closer to Labour than the percentages suggested.

Simon Hughes has taken this concept to a whole new level.

The Government announced today that recorded violent crime has dropped.

Loveable rouge Charles Clarke, 55, Norwich, said:

This little gem escaped us a couple of weeks ago.

Further proof, if any where needed, that John Prescott is Labour's Boris Johnson.

Abu Hamza has been sentenced to serve seven years in prison for being a nasty bastard.

He was found guilty of six charges of soliciting to murder, 3 charges related to "stirring up racial hatred", one charge of owning recordings related to "stirring up racial hatred" and one charge of possessing a "terrorist encyclopaedia".

One report this morning suggested that in a sermon following the 9/11 attacks on America, Hamza had stated that "Islam is at war… [and] …every Jew over the age of 15 should be killed"

Obviously, there are millions of Muslims out there that are not foaming-at-the-mouth-crazies, but they don’t get on telly.

Today, the cartoon protestors, the nuclear nutters in Iran, the murderers of PC Sharon Beshenivksy and the angry mob of bereaved Egyptians are dominating the news.

Well, them and the Super Bowl.