We are a lesser country today

Today, I was supposed to meet fellow Parliamentarian, Geert Wilders, in committee room 4a in the Houses of Parliament. 

I'm an elected MP, in a supposedly free democracy.  I've taken the trouble to read Sayed Qtub's Milestones, Ed Hussein's The Islamist, Michael Gove's Celsius 7/7 and Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Infidel.  I'm interested and open-minded and wanting to learn more.

I absolutely genuinely wanted to hear, in a spirit of open-minded inquiry, what Mr Wilders had to say about radical Islam.

Yet when I turned up at the meeting, Mr Wilders wasn't there.  The British state had intervened to prevent me from discussing his views with me.  They refused him entry at the airport.

We are a lesser country than I thought we were. 

Posted on 12 February 2009 by Douglas Carswell

Comments

The Government and Ms Smith (not to mention the Ink Monitor) have seriously lost the plot - how can one respect the Government when they take actions like these? In addition we will no dubt be taking the soon to be ex-prisoners from Guantanomo. I pose the question - who poses the greater risk to our security?

Posted on 12 February 2009 18:37 by Liz Brown

When a government bends its knee to the will of a religious minority for fear of 'upsetting' said religious minority - there is something wrong.

When a government begins to decide someone's 'opinions' would cause a threat - there is something wrong.

When a government can act and in so doing make me ashamed of my own country - there is something wrong.

Posted on 12 February 2009 20:16 by WitteringsFrom Witney

I watched some of the TV news and read the Ceefax on this story last night.

In their versions, the BBC suppressed so much of the story that it was impossible to work out why Wilders had been refused entry. I saw a bit of Channel 4 news in which an Asian was pointing out the risk to free speech, and being barracked by the presenter for so doing. ITV were a little (but not much better). The word "Moslem" appeared nowhere in any of this, as far as I saw them.

All this made Wilders' comment that Gordon Brown is the biggest coward in Europe unintelligible. He was trying to say that by banning him Brown was giving in to organised Moslem lobbying threatening violence. But a casual viewer would not have understood this, because it was omitted or downplayed.

It's bad enough that someone who criticises Islam should be banned. This implies that dislike and fear of Islam is "far right." If so, no wonder the BNP are doing well, for pretty much everyone is afraid of suicide bombings right now. Shouting "wolf, wolf" at ordinary people in fear really will produce extremism. Indeed Gordon himself is using this fear as justification for ID cards! Must he be "far right" too, if the ID cards will prevent such attacks?

But it is far worse that the state control of broadcast media is now being used to crudely edit out the facts about such events. What we are not allowed to know, what we are prevented from understanding, is in some ways worse than what we know but are not allowed to say.

We need to remove all state control of broadcasting, and ensure diversity of ownership and accessibility by the community. At the moment a tiny and powerful minority are running the show as a propaganda exercise, using Goebbels trick of endless repetition and selective omission. While this continues, Conservatives will always be engaged in an up-hill struggle, and the arrogance of the liberal left reinforced.

Posted on 13 February 2009 09:04 by Roger Pearse

We are all poorer this morning for this. Commented myself on it at my own blog:

http://jerubbaalsvent.blogspot.com/

Mr. Wilders is a very corrosive figure certainly but the lack of balance in how thought-crimes are applied is breathtaking.

BTW what the hell is Daniel going on about this morning? Regarding the Lords selling out the upper house not being a police matter; they were attempting to secure bribes and be complicit in schemes to alter the law for personal gain - this is entirely a police matter, and whilst they remain immune to the electorate this is the only way we can fight against the corruption.

Posted on 13 February 2009 09:48 by Thom

I've been nodding along with the "Wilders is an extremist" line being put out by the liberal media, but woke up an hour or so ago. Hey, ask yourself this: if his views can't be heard in this country, and he has no right of reply, HOW DO WE KNOW THESE AREN'T SMEARS? Aren't these people saying this the people who hate every conservative? Wilders may be a nut for all I know; but surely we need to be careful not to accept views by osmosis?

Posted on 14 February 2009 15:25 by Roger Pearse

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