Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Charles Clarke: A joke

Yesterday Charles Clarke was rounding on press critics who accuse him of imperilling our civil liberties.

You can see his point. Today, says the BBC:
Home Secretary Charles Clarke says he will not resign after 1,023 foreign prisoners were freed without being considered for deportation.
He said he does not know where most of the offenders, who include three murderers and nine rapists, are.
If Clarke is looking to bring in a police state, it is a singularly inefficient one.

All of which reminds me of a joke reported in an article on Soviet humour by Ben Lewis. You can find it in the current issue of Prospect:
A man dies and goes to hell. There he discovers that he has a choice: he can go to capitalist hell or to communist hell. Naturally, he wants to compare the two, so he goes over to capitalist hell. There outside the door is the devil, who looks a bit like Ronald Reagan. "What's it like in there?" asks the visitor. "Well," the devil replies, "in capitalist hell, they flay you alive, then they boil you in oil and then they cut you up into small pieces with sharp knives."
"That's terrible!" he gasps. "I'm going to check out communist hell!" He goes over to communist hell, where he discovers a huge queue of people waiting to get in. He waits in line. Eventually he gets to the front and there at the door to communist hell is a little old man who looks a bit like Karl Marx. "I'm still in the free world, Karl," he says, "and before I come in, I want to know what it's like in there."
"In communist hell," says Marx impatiently, "they flay you alive, then they boil you in oil, and then they cut you up into small pieces with sharp knives."
"But… but that's the same as capitalist hell!" protests the visitor, "Why such a long queue?"
"Well," sighs Marx, "Sometimes we're out of oil, sometimes we don't have knives, sometimes no hot water…"

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Government impunity must come to a stop.

Don't think this is not deliberate, all this 'incompetence' in Parole and Immigration. No one is that stupid.

They are setting up the requirements to neccesitate the National Identity Registry (database). They are creating such a mess we will need it to sort it out again. But why?

Why and How do they act with such IMPUNITY...why do we let them get away with it. All the thieving, lying, corrupt, bullying, wasteful crap that is spinned into neccesary action, which then as they see their problems created requires more action, which creates more problems.

It's like the rest of it. Yes we need to stop terrorists. No we don't need to become an Island Prison to do it. We just need competent government that does not act with IMPUNITY. We need a government which can honestly evaluate the consequences of their actions, instead of making 'targets' as the only truth and squirming and spinning everything else.

Government Impunity is an offence and they are becoming rotten and infected through it.

Government Impunity must come to a stop. Full stop.

Anonymous said...

Prime Minister Tony Blair announced today his cabinet would be launching a new reality television show. The reality TV show entitled “Deportation Island” will mark the Prime Minister’s directorial debut and represents a direct public relations offensive to combat sliding approval ratings. A poll conducted by The Telegraph places the Prime Minister’s personal approval rating at just 36%.

Executive producers of “Deportation Island” include Home Secretary Charles Clarke and Lord Levy. Clarke was asked to become executive director following his extensive experience handling deportation issues. Only yesterday Clarke admitted that 1,023 foreign prisoners had been freed without being considered for deportation. Full story revealed on www.darkmatterpolitics.com...