The Blaney game

It’s all fun and games until somebody loses an eye. Apparently the 21st century political equivalent of having a punch up beside the bike shed after school is to have a live debate on 18 Doughty Street.

Having had one with Mr Blaney not that long ago – and lived to tell the tale – the one thing I will say about him is that he has a curious attitude towards the individual and the state. The crimes of an individual – in Nelson Mandela’s case the violent reprisals of the ANC – are always unforgivable. The crimes of the state – in this case the Tory government’s refusal to criticise South Africa’s system of apartheid – is always justifiable. Philip Lawrence’s murderer should be exterminated. The system of human rights that protects me from being abused by the state should be abolished.

Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but support for a system whereby the rights of the individual are always considered to be subservient to the interests of the state is support for the sort of totalitarianism that Uncle Joe would be comfortable with. Apparently however, we are to regard this as true “Thatcherism”. Thanks for clarifying, Donal.

The only exception to the rule that murder is murder is murder, as Donal himself pointed out during our debate on the Doughty News Hour, is Tony Martin (or St Tony as I understand he is known amongst certain members of the swivel-eyed fringe). Martin, let us not forget, shot a man in the back of the head as he was running away from him. At the very least, one would have thought, Mandela’s tacit support for necklacing by the ANC and Tony Martin’s laughably named ‘self-defence’ could be described as both morally abhorrent. Sadly however, simple consistency is too much to ask.

8 comments

  1. Brilliant. I had always wondered who the cretin was at GingerAndDynamite and now I know who it is! Thanks Paul.

    You DimLebs really are dim. And ginger. And very, very fat.

  2. Donal, why didn’t you just check my Wikipedia entry? I’m VERY notable you know!

    Dim? Possibly. Yet curiously still able to out wit you. I’m not especially ginger though, and sadly, I’m considerably less corpulent than yourself.

  3. Donal, for a fully-grown adult, you have a mightily callow attitude. Perhaps this explains your inability to craft a competent, let alone elegant, sentence. Keep up the mantra, “my name is Donal, and I am notable”…

  4. It’s odd, isn’t it? Ever since I lit the blue touch paper, Donal has been running about with his pants around his ankles, calling me a coward, calling everyone stupid, and generally conducting himself as though he is in fact a few Nazi storm troopers short of a full Panzer division. By the way Donal, do you realise that you have been accorded a singular honour? James has tagged his article with “swivel eyed loons.” Not many get that, I can tell you!

  5. Well yes that’s true. When you get to my age, you like nothing better than a quiet night in, and the laptop is never too far away. I take it you were out strutting your stuff on the disco floor then? Followed by a night of passionate love-making? It would certainly make sense of those unusual seismic readings . . .

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