Roger Kimball has just noticed that democracy is dead in England.
The horrific story of the latest adventure conducted by the religion of peace in Bombay riveted the public’s attention to such an extent that one of the most egregious violations of political freedom in a Western democracy has, at least on this side of the Atlantic, gone almost without comment. I mean the sudden arrest in London last week of of Damian Green, a conservative MP and Shadow Minister for Immigration, who was seized by anti-terrorist personnel from the Metropolitan police, held for questioning for 9 hours, and whose private papers and computer files in his home and office in the House of Commons were confiscated. The Honorable Member’s offense? Embarrassing Gordon Brown’s government. How did he do this? By revealing in debate on the floor of the House of Commons and in various lapses, failures, and dirty-little-secrets about the government’s immigration policy…
Stick a fork in Great Britain, folks. As an ex-Brit told me nearly twenty years ago, the English lost their freedom so gradually and so long ago that they don’t even realize it’s gone. And now that we’ve elected Obama I fear we’re heading down the same path. Can anybody who was half paying attention during the campaign imagine an Obama administration not doing something like this?