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The Personal and The Political
Saturday, April 11, 2015 12:05
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If there is
one unmissable difference between liberty and confinement, it is the distance
between the individual and the State. Out in our daily lives, the State is hidden,
glimpsed fleetingly as traffic wardens flit by and police cars grace our rear
view mirrors. The State is there, in every corner of life, but it gives the
impression of being concealed behind the façade that is life.
one unmissable difference between liberty and confinement, it is the distance
between the individual and the State. Out in our daily lives, the State is hidden,
glimpsed fleetingly as traffic wardens flit by and police cars grace our rear
view mirrors. The State is there, in every corner of life, but it gives the
impression of being concealed behind the façade that is life.
I am used to
a more personal relationship with the State. Directly because of Ministerial
decisions, recommendations by the Parole Board that I move to Open prison prior
to release were overturned. Every moment of my existence was regimented and
regulated, the State being personified by some miserable bugger in size 9’s
slamming the cell door shut. Rarely in the “real world” do we have such
proximity to government.
a more personal relationship with the State. Directly because of Ministerial
decisions, recommendations by the Parole Board that I move to Open prison prior
to release were overturned. Every moment of my existence was regimented and
regulated, the State being personified by some miserable bugger in size 9’s
slamming the cell door shut. Rarely in the “real world” do we have such
proximity to government.
barrier to my forging any consistent relationship with the State, the gaping
hole in the idea of “citizen”, is the denial of the Vote. Ten years after the
Hirst judgement and government is still slithering around the issue like a
snake in a vat of KY. A government insisting I show slavish obedience to the
law whilst ignoring its own obligations is a matter which has, and always will,
rankle with me.
Yet here I
am, the new owner of a vote. And it came without any effort on my part. I haven’t
had to show that I’m intelligenht, educated, moral, or even interested. Whether
I like it or not, I’m lumbered with the damn thing. And now I have to decide
how to wield this miniscule, temporary, power over our masters.
am, the new owner of a vote. And it came without any effort on my part. I haven’t
had to show that I’m intelligenht, educated, moral, or even interested. Whether
I like it or not, I’m lumbered with the damn thing. And now I have to decide
how to wield this miniscule, temporary, power over our masters.
bail out of the whole business, opting no spoil my paper or just not vote. In
the face of a range of political parties all severely afflicted with
prisonitis, the idea of voting on the basis of party is a dead duck. All of
them can rot.
absence of any meaningful political principles on offer, I have decided to
ignore the national picture and rather chose to look local. As is, which local candidate
fills me with sufficient confidence that they can do a decent job representing
my constituency.
improbably, I have alighted upon David Warburton. He is not a career
politician, which may suggest less adherence to slavish party lines in attempts
to curry Party favour. Maybe. And politics is his fourth or fifth career, which
has encompassed classic music through to E-Commerce and social enterprises. A
person rounded by experience, then. Having popped into his office to sound him
out of criminal justice policy, we found ourselves in the café having such a
long chat that other appointments were shifted. Unlike a standard politician,
David was happy to ask questions rather than merely pontificate.
Turns out, I’m
voting….Tory!
voting….Tory!
Ben Gunn is “one of Britain’s best known
prisoners…he constantly questions authority and exposes the futility
of the system” The Times. Pleading guilty to the murder of a friend when
he was 14 years old, Ben has since renounced violence and consistently
fought for the recognition of the inherent dignity of all human beings.
As a result of speaking truth to power, Ben has served far longer than
the recommended 10 years, leading Education Secretary Michael Gove to
argue that Ben “has been punished excessively for a crime committed as a
child”, and Lord Ramsbotham to state that “It is expensive and
unnecessary to keep Ben Gunn in prison”.
Source: http://prisonerben.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-personal-and-political.html
