http://thejournal.parker-joseph.co.uk/…

November 4th 2008

A COPY OF ORWELL’S ‘NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR’ SENT TO EVERY MP

An Internet grass-roots campaign will this week deliver a copy of George
Orwell’s prophetic novel ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ to every Member of
Parliament.

The books will be inscribed with the words, ‘This book was a warning, not a
blueprint’, and will arrive at Parliament on or before November 5th — a
date of well known historical significance for that building.

—————

Outraged by the continual attack upon civil liberties within our nation, a
fortnight ago the Libertarian Party proposed reminding those in Westminster
who they were elected to serve, and in whose interests the laws that they
pass are meant to function.

Spread purely by word of mouth, a campaign to send each Member of Parliament
their own copy of Orwell’s dystopian classic met with overwhelming support
on the Internet, with many more books pledged than the 646 required to
ensure that every one of our elected representatives receive a personal
copy. The Libertarian Party contributed just 75 books itself, with the
remainder coming (directly, or via campaign donations) from people of all
political parties, and of none.

The UK Libertarian Party leader, Ian Parker-Joseph, explained, “As the
people of Britain become ever more spied upon and ever more heavily taxed,
as the government attempts to control how much we should smoke, eat and
drink, as the state legislates to regulate ever more the minutiae of our
lives, the Libertarian Party want to remind people that we have the power,
and that our elected representatives work for us.

“The Libertarian Party would like the people of Britain to remember that the
state is the servant of the people, and not our master. Moreover, we wish to
remind those in Westminster of this fact.

“Many constituents of these MPs will be adding their own personal messages
to the books that they are sending,” added Mr Parker-Joseph, “and it is a
sad reflection of how far towards Orwell’s vision our country has already
slipped that some members of the public have expressed fear at the potential
consequences of simply sending their MP a 60 year old novel. One
correspondent wrote to me:

<< I told my wife I was taking part in this campaign and her and the
children’s answer was “don’t do it, you will get into trouble and have them
after us”. I have been told on numerous occasions by my wife that you cannot
win against the State so “why argue with them, why complain?”

She believes that you cannot fight against the Government or powers that be
and that if you do you will be watched and eventually “they” will come and
get you so it is best not to complain, make waves etc. >>

“What sort of society are we living in where people are so afraid of their
government? Something is very, very wrong here” concluded Mr Parker-Joseph.

NOTES FOR EDITORS

1) The Libertarian Party was founded on November 21st 2007 and officially
launched on January 1st 2008. The party’s website can be found at:
http://www.lpuk.org
2) Further details of the party’s policies can be found in our manifesto:
http://www.lpuk.org/pages/manifesto.php
3) Libertarianism is a political philosophy based on support for individual
liberty.
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarianism
4) The Party’s blog regularly examines how the UK is slipping into the
totalitarian vision portrayed by Orwell. See, for example, here:
http://lpuk.blogspot.com/2008/10/1984-arrogant-tom-harris-mp-just-doesnt.html

Tom Harris, MP for Glasgow, received his copy of the book a few days ago. In his blog, Harris railed against the intended message in his blog:

[T]here seem to be an awful lot of people out there - perhaps dozens of them - who seem to get strangely exercised at the prospect of a “police state”. Except that what they define as a “police state” is a million light years from what Orwell himself described. CCTV cameras in the street? That’s just like Nineteen Eighty-Four, when families were monitored in their own homes, 24 hours a day! Can’t use racist terms to vilify people any more? Well, surely that’s thought crime, just like Orwell predicted!

What rubbish. As I’ve written here before, this is all paranoid fantasy, and why so many people get off on it, I’ll never know. I recently had the latest in a series of requests from constituents regarding CCTV. Requests to have the cameras removed? No, no, no… Requests for more cameras…

We live in a democracy, and just because those — including my anonymous benefactor — who get excited about such things are unhappy that Labour is in power, that does not make us anything other than a democracy. And democratically-elected governments govern with the consent of the people. Yes, even this one!

Yay democracy (republican democracy?)!! Even if it turns to tyranny it’s OK because obviously the people want it… it’s a government of the people, right?!

The problem here isn’t free speech cages in and of themselves. The right to speech is derived from property rights. Since these lands are owned by the public government, according to rights theory, they should have the ability to dictate what is done on their plot of land. However, as a result of the whole “the public owns it” farce we come to a situation where there is a tragedy of the commons. Their founding documents claim that the public has the right to peacefully assemble and freedom of speech. Therefore one would derived the right to use common land as a platform for those. Let’s accept that as I think historically that can be shown true. What these protesters need to do then is disobey. Stop listening to the thugs who are attempting to disrespect their rights. During the 2004 Republican National Convention the NYPD had setup similar free speech zones. The Manhattan Libertarian party told the city to go pound sand and went off to Central Park and protested there. They received international attention for doing so and no one to my knowledge was harassed. I, however, who at the time was not an MLP member nor protesting, was nearly caught up in one of the NYPD’s protester nets where dozens were taken to Pier 57. Had I not found a low part in the orange netting and hopped over I may have ended up at the pier for just walking down the street. No damage should come of the cages or cameras nor should anyone get violent obviously. They should just not listen, en masse.