I'd go much further though into saying something a bit more provocative - namely that it's not just that the "rule of law" (in its idealised form) doesn't exist, it's that they actively hate the idea of it and would never want it actually enforced.
This is provocative only insofar as it detours away from a lot of rhetoric where politicians clutch pearls about the rule of law as an inherent "British value".
But crucially this is a PR ruse. They hate the idea - naturally so! If implemented it would threaten their power!
In other words it's much deeper than simply wanting to dodge punishment or consequence - I think it's an active dislike, synthesised with an incredibly deep hypocrisy, and a rapacious lust for power.
We should also I think ask deeper questions about the nature of Liberty as a political idea and how it has been theorised. Because crucially - particularly in its 19th century guise - it has always been bound with a janus-faced quality.
To take up one example, in the beginning of JS Mill's tract 'On Liberty' he says that he's going to make an argument for liberty but says there are two exceptions to who should be guaranteed it: children and non-whites.
He goes further though and says: "Despotism is a legitimate mode of government in dealing with barbarians, provided the end be their improvement, and the means justified by actually effecting that end."
This imo can be used as a wider metaphor to explain in some instances the seemingly anti-universal strain of liberty expressed by politicians: they like liberty, but just not for welfare-claimants, young black men, etc etc.
And the roots of such thinking go back to the origins of classical liberalism.
This explains *partially* why some "libertarians" like the PCSC Bill: they love liberty, just not for travellers or black people. For them, brute police force, stop and search, pepper spray, dogs, and prison is wholly justified. It might well "improve" them.
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People often reference Starmer's involvement with the McLibel case to showcase his left-wing credentials, but it's worth noting that the person who helped write the leaflet which the libel case concerned itself with was a spycop infiltrator named Bob Lambert.
In other words, Starmer's great moral achievement is tinged with a striking tension: namely that years later, when he chose to whip to abstain on the #Spcops Bill, he effectively declared a callous indifference for the activists he previously defended.
This pattern crops up again, most strikingly in regards to the campaign for justice for Stephen Lawrence's family. Starmer was instrumental in the legal campaign, but crucially, as we now know, the political campaign was infiltrated by #spycops.
David Lammy's repeated insistence on using Churchill - a man who had striking miners shot ("fill their bellies with lead") - in numerous speeches of his as a symbol of human rights & civil liberties, is continually repellent.
Of course it's perfectly true that the tradition of political liberty has been suffused with revolting hypocrites and vultures - but it is the task for people nominally on the left, to try to craft a solid narrative about freedom. Use better symbols and figures!
Oh who am I kidding? This is just the Labour Party, I guess. 😩
This is a good point fwiw. A lot of the terminology around this ("libertarian" etc) conceals the fact that our opponents actually quite like the state! It's just that they want to use the state to orient it in a way that benefits a particular class interest.
1️⃣@WRNewcastle are trying to evict a tenant from a property during a pandemic! 🦠
2️⃣They have harassed their tenant & not fixed a *broken carbon monoxide alarm* 😱
3️⃣The ombudsman said they had caused "aggravation, distress, and inconvenience to their tenant!
The tenants demands are:
✊ To be compensated for the mistreatment
✊ For his eviction notice to be rescinded
✊ To be relocated to another unit while repairs take place
The notion that the Bill could have been stopped by sporadic days of action is ludicrous. The orientation should have been towards consistent direct action/civil disobedience: sitting on train-tracks for days on end etc etc.
I emphasise the train-tracks point as an example of the kind of thing that was required. Generally speaking the tactics deployed by the movement were marches, rallies, and often actual sit-ins.