And so it came to pass that Tory MP Julian Smith got
his Westminster Hall debate, or as
many are now seeing it, a McCarthyite ambush of the deeply subversive
Guardian over its revelations over the material supplied by former NSA
contractor Edward Snowden, aided and abetted by Minister James Brokenshire, and
cheered on by the increasingly paranoid Louise Mensch.
Several MPs turned up, eager to engage in debate, only to
find that Smith and Brokenshire took up most of the time reading out their
speeches, which were as tedious as they were predictable. The Minister span the
usual line, that what had been reported had damaged “National Security”, but why he could be so sure was a secret, and
we had to trust him.
Smith once again lamely followed where Ms Mensch had
erroneously led him: the Guardian had been “copying,
trafficking and distributing files on British intelligence and GCHQ. That
information not only endangers our national security but may identify personnel
currently working in our intelligence services, risking their lives and those
of their families”. This is total bullshit, as I’ve previously noted.
There is no evidence, anywhere at all, that any information
published by the Guardian, the New York Times, the Washington Post or ProPublica
– the sole recipients of that information, despite Ms Mensch asserting
otherwise – made it possible to identify any individual working for the
security services, nor that any such identification could be made now or in the
future.
This mildly inconvenient fact may be why so many MPs across
the political spectrum were
less than impressed with Smith’s effort. David Davis and Dominic Raab were
two Tories falling into this category. For Labour, Paul Farrelly, David Winnick
and Paul Flynn were equally unimpressed. All wanted to know why, if the Guardian had behaved as asserted, why no
charges had been brought.
Smith and Brokenshire suggested that there may be charges in
the very near future, but without a shred of evidence, on what basis do they
expect the authorities to act? Ms Mensch persists in suggesting that there may
be arrests and charges in the USA, but no law enforcement body has indicated
that they have any plans to move in that direction. Yet the calls keep on
coming.
Julian Smith might usefully consider where he is right now
with his ill-advised campaign. His debate, consisting as it did of him and
Brokenshire taking up most of the allotted time to the exclusion of any real
debate, has got him precisely nowhere, except to galvanise cross-party
opposition to what he is doing: allowing himself to be used by a Murdoch stooge
detached from reality.
He ought to quit while he’s not too far behind. But Smith is too stupid to do that.
1 comment:
Although Louise Mensch seems to have become increasingly unhinged - I think its clearly all calculated on her part.
She seems to have become the UK version of Ann Coulter - where she she increasingly goes on bat shit crazy rampages and tries to latch onto any publicity so she gets tv punditry and 'journalism' gigs.
For that's all she is, a publicity, outrage manufacturing self publicist - hopefully we can all recognize this and just ignore her now.
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