Tuesday, July 03, 2007
England is dead.
From the Daily Express:
Gordon Brown has banned ministers from using the word “Muslim” in connection with the terrorism crisis.
The Prime Minister has also instructed his team – including new Home Secretary Jacqui Smith – that the phrase “war on terror” is to be dropped.
The shake-up is part of a fresh attempt to improve community relations and avoid offending Muslims, adopting a more “consensual” tone than existed under Tony Blair.
I thought there was something exceedingly odd about PM Brown's first public statement; he uttered a few Bushian platitudes about "being vigilant", but didn't say anything meaningful. Blair would have told the straight truth, in language that would brace the nation for whatever needed to be done. I was willing to tentatively forgive Brown on grounds of newness and perhaps a different style.
Then I thought Jacqui Smith's statement "These terrorists are criminals" was even more wrong-headed. Again I was ready to discount for inexperience and accidental word choice.
But I didn't realize just how bad it is. This is not inexperience, this is intentional and premeditated total surrender.
This is so utterly cowardly, so completely suicidal, that it should call for an instant correction from the throne, even a takeover from the throne. Elizabeth Regina, are you there?
¶ 7:35 PM
Gordon Brown has banned ministers from using the word “Muslim” in connection with the terrorism crisis.
The Prime Minister has also instructed his team – including new Home Secretary Jacqui Smith – that the phrase “war on terror” is to be dropped.
The shake-up is part of a fresh attempt to improve community relations and avoid offending Muslims, adopting a more “consensual” tone than existed under Tony Blair.
I thought there was something exceedingly odd about PM Brown's first public statement; he uttered a few Bushian platitudes about "being vigilant", but didn't say anything meaningful. Blair would have told the straight truth, in language that would brace the nation for whatever needed to be done. I was willing to tentatively forgive Brown on grounds of newness and perhaps a different style.
Then I thought Jacqui Smith's statement "These terrorists are criminals" was even more wrong-headed. Again I was ready to discount for inexperience and accidental word choice.
But I didn't realize just how bad it is. This is not inexperience, this is intentional and premeditated total surrender.
This is so utterly cowardly, so completely suicidal, that it should call for an instant correction from the throne, even a takeover from the throne. Elizabeth Regina, are you there?
¶ 7:35 PM
