Personal Blogs

I do sometimes wonder about free speech. I still struggle when people say that they get upset when somebody says that they don't agree with something, for example that we should not be holding parades for our brave and courageous military when they return from tours of duty.

I am always reminded of the War of Jenkins Ear, on the basis that the people thought that it was a good idea at the time. Or that England got involved in the Great War, which really was nothing to do with us, except that it was likely that Germany would have 'won' by Christmas without our assistance to the French.

I always worry when politicians use war as a distraction to events at home, for example again with the Great War, the near Mutiny in Ireland just before we sent the boys over to save the Empire. We are mired in the awfulness of Afghanistan, after our ignominious defeat in Iraq, with the run in the dark from Basra, and I fear what exactly we are going to do in Libya, and why we do nothing in Yemen, or Bahrain.

I think that we should not confuse respect for fear. Did you never get beaten with a leather strap, that was what controlled the boys in the school which I went to. Did your father never hit you, I know mine did, oh and my mother, which may explain a lot of 'stuff' I still have a problem with. Were you never kept in your place, not by love, but by fear. I lived in a place of fear all my childhood, it was a terrible place, for me it was anyway. I have lived and worked in many places throughout the world, every day still is a battle.

I hate violence, I hate control, it is a constant battle, sometimes one which I feel that I am losing and then I meet someone, and I survive, just that bit longer. My father was the illegitamite son of a farm labourers daughter, he became a Lieutenant Commander in the Royal Navy and was given the MBE by the Queen. I was proud of my father, but I did not respect him, I feared him, all my life until his death.

My father followed orders, he did what he was told, he was on HMS Dorsetshire when she sailed away after being the ship which finally sank the Bismark, he was in tears at the end of his life over the sounds and noise of the sailors who were left in the sea to die, sailors screamig for their mothers.

On armed forces day it is the day to remember the courage of those who refuse orders, who don't do as they are told, who rebel in their own ways. The government does not like 'dissing' they really don't want the truth to come out, yet it must, in public, and under oath. The guilty must go before the courts and face justice, if they don't then we are all guilty. It is totally unacceptable to say I did what I did because I was following orders, all of us, but the experts who stay silent, they are the most guilty. The teachers who hide the truth, the ones who have sold out, the ones who destroy young lives, it is the system which destroys.

I'll tell you all something. The day that the government lifts the high court injunction on my son, the injunction which prevents him from speaking in public, that is the day I might stop. What have they to fear from such a man, a man who signed to serve his Queen and country, who took the Queens shilling alright, but who said no, this is not right. A man who could have killed a fellow human being based on a lie. Now a man who refuses orders, a man who tries to tell the truth, now that is a man who I respect, and love very much. The truth is out there, all we have to do is look, as #111 says, honest debate is healthy, it can heal, but the lies, the lies must stop.

That is what is wrong with Brown, he seeks transparency, honesty and truth, and yet these are the very things which he fears the most, the Iraq inquiry must be in public, it must be on oath, the truth will hurt, but it must come out. Otherwise we are not human beings, we are loathsome creatures of the dark. We need the light, the light of justice to shine to redeem us all.

I would like to confirm that my petition on the Number 10 site now has 29 signatures. This is not about reconstruction as Brown would like it to be but the Terms of Reference for the inquiry must specifically include allegations about extra-ordinary rendition, and enhanced interrogation techniques, which to me is a form of torture. That is what it is about as much as anything else.

As for anybody who thinks that events in Iran are an affront to democracy should look in the mirror and remember Dr David Kelly, Mr de Menezes, Blair Peach, and restrictions on freedom of speech by the use of High Court Injunctions, and the threats of withdrawal of compensation to British soldiers who have been injured, and to the families of soldiers killed in action. Furthermore, look into the judges comments in the case of Col. Mendonca, also the comments by soldiers in respect of the young man who died in Iraq as a result of heat exhaustion.