“Anyone who thinks these trifling ‘civil liberties’ issues are worth not voting Labour for is a selfish prick, frankly. We shouldn’t pander to them.”
“ID cards are a complete waste of money. My point was just that you’d have to be a moron to think that they were a legitimate reason not to vote Labour, morally speaking.”
George Owers, head of the Labour Club:
“Well, I think John has a point, in that anyone who votes purely on the basis of civil liberties clearly can afford to – middle class people who basically don’t have to struggle for their daily existence can afford the luxury of voting on such a basis. I also think that some of the civil liberties stuff is grossly exaggerated – the degree of scaremongering is unbelievable. This is not to deny that there are some legitimate worries, but the idea, so often trotted out by the civil liberties brigade, that we’re living in a ‘Police State’ etc is an insult to people who really do live under authoritarian regimes.”
John:
“ASB [anti-social behaviour] is far more important than any amount of databases and 90-days detentions, and if people can’t see that, well they’re not Labour people.”
Indeed.
