When good men did something

Listening to the reading out of hysterical emails on the radio yesterday, or to the unwise comments of former military commanders who referred to the successful defence pleaded by Toby Olditch and Philip Pritchard against charges of criminal damage in the B-52 case as “bullshit” (yes, and on Radio 2 during lunch yesterday!), you could be forgiven for thinking that traitors were running wild in the country. In reality, they are not and these were simply two brave men who stood up to be counted.

Both admit that on the face of it, they were guilty as they intended to damage B-52 bombers in an airbase on 18th March 2003, something they never denied. They knew that the information they were carrying with them when they went into the base gave the prosecution all the evidence necessary to pursue charges.

However, and to the clear agitation and displeasure of the “hang em high” brigade, the law makes provision for the fact that a person may do something that would otherwise be criminal while acting to prevent a greater crime or while trying to protect the property of another. That crime was of course the illegal war in Iraq.

Having listened to a week of evidence on the consequences to Iraqis of "Shock and Awe" and the indiscriminate nature of cluster munitions and depleted uranium, the jury found them not guilty. Further, it was stated in court that there was never any intention to endanger the flight crews, as they took the step of carrying signs to forewarn the ground and flight crews of the damage they attempted to carry out. Maybe some of those who thought they should have been put up against a wall and shot should have actually listened to the facts before suggesting that they endangered military personnel.

To their credit, both men did not think that this was a victory, for as Toby pointed out after the verdict: "The worse case scenario for us would have been prison - but nothing compares to the horror that has been inflicted on innocent Iraqis."

Ironically some who argued against their direct action referred to what Toby and Philip were protesting against as not being war crimes, using the illustration of the Nazi concentration camps as an example of what they considered to be a “real” war crime. In doing so, what they completely missed was their point, that is that if those who stood back when those camps were being built and used had protested in some way similar to Toby and Philip, there may not have been the slaughter of the innocents.

As Edmund Burke put it, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

Tony Boy - Gordon

So Mr Brown twisted enough arms to secure 308 nominations prompting left-winger John McDonnell to concede.

John was 16 nominations short of the 45 required; or to put it another way, New Labour managed to avoid any semblance of a democratic process in shoehorning Gordon through the front door of Number 10. John rightly called this sham a "blow to democracy".

Well it looks like it is full steam ahead for the New Labour machine, stifling democratic processes where it matters whilst funding the side-show that is the election of Gordon’s deputy.

McDonnell's challenge would have given Labour voters a chance to vote for a left-wing alternative to Brown, but unfortunately Blairism reigns on. You can’t profess to be a new man when you stoop to the Old Master’s tactics.

So what do we have to look forward to.

Firstly we have the disaster that is Iraq – we’ll back the USA says Brown.

We have lack of investment – we’ll stick to PFI.

I could go on, but I think you know what Tony Boy Gordon will do – the market rules!