WHACK-A-MOLE

First they came for the chavs,
but I don’t wear tracksuits
Then they came for Muslim Jihadists,
but I can’t even grow a beard
Then they came for Animal Rights campaigners,
but I like buying L’oreal products
Then they came for Eco-campaigners,
but I don’t believe in climate change
Then they came for the toffs...

Hard not to feel a moment of schadenfreude when you hear about a top Tory MP getting arrested, but this time it looks like the chickens have come home to roost for a government (and compliant ‘opposition’) that’s comfortable with a Mugabe-esque use of maximum force against any dissenters. Of course, as anyone who reads the right way up will know, the Man has been putting the boot in to any of us unwashed and unwaged masses that dare to challenge the the government’s many injustices.

Damian Green MP was arrested for ‘misconduct in public office’ (er, when have politicians done anything else?). To add to his humiliations, he was held for nine hours, his house and offices raided and his phone and laptop siezed by the Met. We can only imagine his futile calls of “…but don’t you know who I am?” as he was hauled away.

But, gloating aside, it just goes to show that what starts as a crackdown on animal rights activists, chavs and Muslims is really just the no-holds barred accumulation of power for power's sake by the state.

The actual nature of Green’s whistle-blowing is fairly trivial (we’re not talking about the Dreyfus affair or Iranian Nukes here, just some everyday stuff about the Neo-Labours’ fears of immigrants and recession) but it looks like even those blessed with parliamentary privilege just aren’t looking quite so privileged if they step out of line.

Unfortunately, rather than sparking any kind of real debate along the lines of “hang on, hasn’t this gone a bit too far now?” it looks like all it might do is revive the flagging career of David Davis, the Tory boy who talks like someone’s given him a spliff and a copy of At Ten to read. And what’s the betting that, when/if any of these would-be libertarian Tories get their grubby mitts to the top of the greasy pole of power they’ll find that they too start seeing enemies of freedom everywhere, especially when their favourite type of freedom is the freedom to screw the rest of us over to line their pockets.