Friday, April 19, 2013

For now...

One of the more worrying aspects of the Leveson enquiry was the willingness of the enemies of freedom to go along with his proposals to muzzle the press. Even more worrying was the fact that you simply cannot trust legislation to do what it says on the tin, there's inevitably mission creep, just look at RIPA and various race relation legislation which has gradually expanded far past the original legislators vision.
So when our MP's turn around and tell me that small blogs will be exempt from press regulation, my initial thoughts focus upon, for how long?
BBC.
Blogs with a turnover of less than £2m and those with fewer than 10 employees will not be subject to new press regulation, the government says.
The amendments - to go before MPs on Monday - also exempt small firms for whom news is not their core business.
A press watchdog is to be established in England and Wales by royal charter and backed by legislation following the Leveson inquiry into press ethics.
The government said the amendments "clarify the position".
You see, thanks to the treacherous Labour and Lib Dem clones in Parliament, we are now heading towards a muzzled press where the thieves that supposedly run the country will have an extra layer in place to prevent their exposure to being caught with their hands in the cookie jar. However, I suspect that one day a blogger will come close to exposing our corrupt fiddlers and that's when the existing legislation will be amended (on the nod no doubt) to include anyone and anything who threatens their cosy little crooked club. Once the new legislation is in place it becomes a lot more easier to simply amend it, such amendments would not necessarily come under full Parliamentary scrutiny either.
To coin a phrase, this is the thin end of the wedge. In twenty or so years time, providing the islamobarbs haven't taken over, we simply won't be in a position to find out what scandalous behaviour our elected representatives are getting up too.
This is the equivalent of throwing a dog a bone to try and make the government look good. The real trouble is the muzzling by extra legislation of our press. Yes, they are a bunch of tossers, but at least they occasionally came up trumps. Soon though, they may make a discovery, but we'll never know.
That's the danger we face, the true danger.

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