Lying politicians were literally cut down to size

Traitors Gate at the Tower of London. Prisoners would be brought to the Tower of London by boat along the Thames, and taken in through Traitors Gate. Once they had entered the Tower by this route it was very unlikely they would leave the fortress alive. Aristocratic prisoners were beheaded with a sword. Commoners were beheaded with an axe. Their heads would then be stuck on a pole and displayed on London Bridge. Politicians who were found guilty of treason (lining their own pockets, selling secrets to foreigners, plotting to seize power) could be dragged to the block and immediately decapitated. Often within an hour or so of being found guilty. Those were the days when lying politicians were literally cut down to size.

It was disturbing to read in the Independent on Saturday about the visit of Tony Blair to Rupert Murdoch over the weekend – apparently in an attempt to “fix” the next election in the United Kingdom. The visit has been commented on elsewhere in the media as if it were a routine part of the political process, as usual as submitting nomination papers or paying election deposits. Has democracy become so rotten that no-one can see how bad this meeting is?

1 Tony Blair lied to win the last election and has lied continuously ever since (particularly over the Iraq war).

2 He has arranged who the next Prime Minister is to be without any suggestion of an election to ratify this selection (he has introduced a presidential style to this country and yet wants to keep selection of the “president” according to the old convention of a first among equals emerging by consensus), and having agreed that Gordon Brown is to be the next “president” he is simultaneously plotting to undermine his former friend and install yet another nominee.

3 He is now conspiring with a foreigner media owner, based in a foreign country, over the spin (lies) that is to be promulgated in the United Kingdom to maintain his nominees in power.

It is the smug way in which Murdoch seems to be weighing up whether Gordon Brown or David Cameron should be the next Prime Minister that I find so disgusting. Given that a free press is essential to the functioning of democracy perhaps there should be a law against foreigners controlling press and television (in the same way that there is a law against foreigners funding political parties in the United Kingdom). Even more offensive is the idea that Rupert Murdoch is lining up a job for Tony Blair for when he finally stands down.

The effectiveness of The Sun newspaper relies upon the ease with which clever people can bamboozle the uneducated and unsophisticated. The height of cleverness is to pretend to be stupid (Rochefoucauld). Tony Blair is popular with Rupert Murdoch because of the support Blair gave George Bush for the war in Iraq (presumably there is a cats cradle of quid pro quo deals going on here).

I never meant this to be a political blog, but it is proving to be impossible to separate politics from daily life. To paraphrase the saying: for evil to triumph it is sufficient for ordinary people to do nothing. And is Tony Blair evil? I think that is beyond doubt. He has betrayed everything. He has betrayed everyone.



I realise we live in enlightened times, and the concept of summary justice and capital punishment has no place in our current criminal justice system. Nevertheless I do have a recurring fantasy of seeing Tony Blair arriving by boat at the Tower of London and being dragged in through Traitors Gate (sometimes alone, sometimes accompanied by John Prescott, Peter Mandelson, Alistair Campbell etc). Rupert Murdoch could also be bundled through that entrance if we could get hold of him (maybe Peter Tatchell could do a citizen’s arrest).