Bloody. Hopeless.
Thought I would take a moment to appraise you of an exchange we've had with our nobody Labour MP Joan Ruddock on the 42 days' detention vote. Thought I might as well share this correspondence, so that you also could kill a few moments on a Friday savouring the kind of limp response former Labour voters get when they approach their local Brownite buttkissing MP on issues of real significance...
The story:
A couple of weeks ago, my partner wrote to Joan Ruddock to tell her that he would no longer be voting for Labour on account of the government's recent vote in favour of 42 days' detention for terrorist suspects.
He just got the world's wettest response from Joan. Truly. It arrived in the mail today. The patronising tone of it is superb - it's like Joan is reading a pop-up book on war really slowly to a five-year-old. And none of his points about withdrawing his support from the Labour party are acknowledged or addressed. No surprises there, I guess.
Scuse the female aggression, people (heh heh), but I have to say this - I loathe these tossers. I LOATHE them. LOATHE.
Etc.
Here's the whole exchange:
12 June 2008:
Dear Joan Ruddock,
I am taking the trouble to write to you to tell you that I will no longer be voting for the Labour Party. The final straw for me was the Commons voting through 42 days under arrest and without charge with the support of Anne Widdecombe and the DUP. This continuing erosion of our civil liberties makes me ashamed to be living in the UK.
Having grown up through the Thatcher & Major governments I used to think that there could be nothing worse than a Tory government. I have changed my mind. New Labour really scrapes the barrel.
Yours sincerely,
etc
And here's Joan:
26 June 2008
Dear...,
Thank you for your email regarding the Counter Terroism Bill. I'm sorry for the long delay in responding to you. I receive a huge volume of post and this can lead to a delay in my reply.
I have made representations within the government on this issue, and I have opposed extending pre-charge detention in the past.
There is little doubt that Britain faces a severe and sustained threat from terrorism and that this threat is more complex and international in nature than ever before.
This increasing complexity means that investigators may be faced with a situation where to build a case they may need to hold terrorist suspects beyond the current 28 day limit. The provisions for extending pre-charge detention are not for a permanent or immediate extension of the pre-charge detention limit. This would only come into effect in very exceptional circumstances, with the support of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the backing of Parliament, will be subject to judicial safeguards and will only be for a pre-determined temporary period.
I think we all regret that this should be necessary, but I believe it could be and voted accordingly.
Your sincerely,
Joan Ruddock
