DOWN TO THE DOCTOR'S: A Glimmer of Hope From Europe

Libertarianz leader Richard McGrath ransacks the newspapers for stories and headlines on issues affecting our freedom.

This week: A Glimmer of Hope From Europe

Over the past week or two, there have been some tantalising news items on the UK Daily Telegraph website:

• “Nick Clegg calls on public to help scrap bad laws” – In a shock move, British deputy PM Nick Clegg uses the F-word – freedom – as he proposes an ‘initiative intended to shift power away from the state to the people’. He says: 
      “It is not for Government to tell people ‘how to live their lives’ … civil liberties should
      be restored and laws stifling businesses abandoned.”
  Good heavens. Has he taken leave of his senses? But wait, there’s more:
      “We are asking the people of Britain to tell us how you want to see your freedom
       restored. We are calling for your ideas on how to protect our hard-won liberties
      and repeal unnecessary laws. And we want to know how best to scale back
      excessive regulation that denies businesses the space to innovate.”
  And he continues:
      “It is a radically different approach. One based on trust. Because it isn’t up
      to government to tell people how to live their lives.”
  He wants people to focus not on what they think the taxpayer owes them, not on what they think the government should expropriate from the mouth of labour on their behalf, but on
      “…laws that have eroded civil liberties; regulations that stifle the way charities
      and businesses work; laws that are not required and which are likely to see
      law-abiding citizens criminalised.”
  What has this man been smoking?! Mr Clegg added:
      “The Labour government developed a dangerous reflex when faced with a problem
      and just passed more laws.”
  Indeed it did.
      “Over the last decade, thousands of new rules and regulations have amassed on
      the statute book. And it is our liberty that has paid the price. Under the cover
      of pretending to act in our best interest, the state has crept further and further
      into people’s homes and their private lives. That intrusion is disempowering. It needs
      to change.”
  Those are powerful, subversive sentiments, worthy of those who once made Britain a bastion of individual liberty and limited government. Bravo, Mr Clegg!
• “Ministers to slash pay-offs for public servants” – This British coalition government is threatening to outdo Margaret Thatcher! They want state sector budget cuts of around 40 per cent. And they want to disconnect hundreds of thousands of parasitic civil servants from the taxpayer teat. They want to scale back redundancy payouts for these bloated bloodsuckers to a few months’ or even a few weeks’ worth of wages. Not the current SIX YEARS’ SALARY that some of these public servants have been handed in the past when levered out of their warm and comfortable Whitehall cocoons. The capping of severance pay will put an end to the ridiculous situation where two Treasury ‘mandarins’ walked off with a million pounds of other people’s money between them upon dismissal. I foresee a rapidly approaching showdown with militant Marxist trade unions which should be interesting to view from the sidelines; I just hope Cameron and Clegg have the stomach for a fight.
• “Another chapter in the unending saga of shameless rorting of the system by Labour Party thieves” - This time the star of the show is 73 year old Frank Cook, former MP for Stockton North, who claimed twice for items purchased in the United States but which apparently were to be used in his electorate office. Yeah right. Also claimed for a refund of council tax on two homes – taxes I would wager he’s happy for the rest of his fellow Britons to have to pay. The bastard knew full well he was only allowed to claim for council taxes on one home. What a hypocritical bottom-feeding windbag. The miserable prick even claimed for a five-pound donation made at a church service to commemorate the Battle of Britain, the tight-arsed skinflint. Have these people no shame, no sense of humility, no insight into their utter insignificance in contrast to those who actually create value and wealth? Sadly, it seems not; instead they share an overwhelming sense of self-importance and an unquenchable need for aggrandizement at the expense of working people. Pleasing, then, to see this maggot got a pitiful 1,577 votes when he stood as an independent at the recent UK election – fewer than the BNP candidate. Little wonder. The British people are sick to the back teeth of hearing about the rampant abuses of power perpetrated by vermin such as Mr Cook during Labour’s time in government. Revenge must have been sweet for the beleaguered voters of Stockton North.
• “Twin brother of dead Polish president concedes defeat in election” – How admirable that a majority of Poles had the sense to reject sentimentality and pass over the remaining Kaczynski twin in favour of Bronislaw Komorowski as Polish head of state. That Mr Komorowski is a man of courage speaks for itself - a dissident during the days of totalitarian communist rule, he was thrown into an Eastern bloc prison for his beliefs. He now joins prime minister Donald Tusk in attempting to do what other European governments need to do – slash public spending and privatise industries and government departments. Best wishes to him and to the people of Poland.

When the people fear the government, there is tyranny - when the government
fear the people, there is liberty.
- Thomas Jefferson