How low will we allow ourselves to be dragged before, resolved no longer to be degraded in the ethical gutter, we shout 'enough and no more' and rebel? Ten years ago Anthony Charles Linton Blair and his gang of ex-varsity chums and assorted old Scotch cronies promised us that 'things can only get better'. One expects a certain degree of hyperbole and hubris from a politican, empty, boastful rhetoric is, after all, typical of much of the output of those who perform the rôle, but Blair's Labour party long ago exceeded what any but the the most turpitudinous would consider acceptable limits. No one can deny that things have not only not got better, they have got a great deal worse, so much so that very little can now possibly surprise a populace that exists in a state of jaded cynicism far more acute than that characterising the eighteen long winters of Conservative and Unionist (mis)rule under Mrs Thatcher and John Major. This, however, must be beyond the 'wildest imaginings' of anyone not certifiably insane.
It's not unreasonable to expect Grooovey Dave to have had something to say about the report. Given that he acted with (what was to many) indecent haste to retard the career of Patrick Mercer for the non-offence of reporting what squaddies commonly say to each other by way of comradely endearment, he is obviously capable of rapid reaction but he has, thus far, not seen fit to speak out on the issue. Perhaps electoral fraud is now considered 'par for the course' and thus not so very exceptional; The article quotes David Crompton, the Assistant Chief Constable of West Yorkshire, as saying: 'This is extremely sharp practice and a clear breach of the guidelines'. Is that all it is, a 'breach of the guidelines'? If a senior police officer can describe a serious criminal offence as 'extremely sharp practice' without drawing down opprobrium on his head we might reasonably fear that, constitutionally, we are in serious trouble.
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