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“Suicide may be the only answer. Though I will bet the bloody Labour Party has prohibited that on health and safety grounds, and that they won't be able to cremate the body because crematoria aren't allowed to smoke any more.”
The Rotten State of Britain Eamonn Butler Gibson Square, 2009, £11.99
Eamonn Butler, the director of the Adam Smith Institute, was in Church House, Westminster, doing an interview for a Canadian TV station to promote this book. When he had finished he went outside with the camera crew to do some shots of him walking down the street.
After a couple of minutes a police car screeched to a halt, and two armoured officers got out to ask what they were doing.
Butler says it must have looked pretty obvious. The cameraman had a huge camera on a tripod and the interviewer was carrying a microphone like a shaggy dog.
But the police officer explained that, since they were on at least four different security cameras, he had to go through the procedure. Butler and the crew were obliged to provide identification and fill in forms. Name, address, date of birth, height...
All of which goes to prove the point Butler makes in this book. The Rotten State of Britain is a bit of a cuttings job, and its many claims are not referenced, but Butler succeeds in painting a clear and damning picture of the centralisation and loss of liberty we have suffered under 12 years of Labour government.
Among the facts unearthed in the book are that Britain has a quarter of the world’s CCTV cameras. And that in the year 2006/7 half of the 722,464 DNA samples collected by police came from children. One came from a seven-month-old girl.
Eamonn Butler combines this concern for liberty with a desire to make deep cuts in public spending. In doing so, he is a little unfair to Labour. True, the improvements gained from increased spending on education and health are disappointing, given the scale of that extra spending. But surely there has been some improvement?
But there is a challenge here for Liberal Democrats. We tend to be keen on the good things a strong state brings – like socialised health and education – and against the bad things, like surveillance and identity cards.
Being against nasty things and favour of nice ones is a natural instinct, but does not constitute a coherent political philosophy. We need to do some more thinking.
Thank you to everyone who took part and congratulations to the three winners. I shall be emailing you to ask for your full addresses.
I shall stay at the Hall for a while and help Lord Bonkers and Meadowcroft finish the Rutland champagne.
Good night.
21:42 Hazel probes the deepest recesses of the top hat and emerges with the third winner:
Charles Steward
Lord Bonkers remarks: Isn't he the chap who his up an oak tree?
21:40 The lovely Hazel has drawn the second winner:
Sue Richardson
And she's from Shropshire!
21:36 I think that was a betting slip left over from the Oakham races.
Hazel Grove tries again and the first winner is...
Jonathan Hill
Always nice to see a Jonathan doing well.
21:34 And the winner of the first copy of The Rotten State of Britain is....
Rutland Lad in the 2.30 5/- each way
21:31 We are back at the Hall, where Miss Fearn has made everyone "a nice cup of tea" and calmed their nerves.
Following a sensible suggestion in the comments, all the correct entries have been printed off and placed in Lord Bonkers' top hat.
Hazel Grove, her dress even further off the shoulder, has come forward to draw the first winner.
21:18 While we are waiting, here are Steeleye Span to sing "The Lowlands of Mulholland".
21:16 I am writing this in the Bonkers Arms where Meadowcroft has kindly bought me a pint of Smithson & Greaves Northern Bitter. (He warned me against the gassy Dahrendorf lager.)
We are staying here until things have been sorted out at the Hall. I should like to take this opportunity of thanking the men and horses of the Rutland Fire Brigade for their speedy response, though I am not sure the ARSE will ever be the same again.
We shall stay here until they are ready for us again at the Hall.
20:56 So Hazel Grove presses the button again. The machine lights up, the needles on the dials flicker, a steady hum is heard and
There appears to be blue smoke coming out of the ARSE. It's making it difficult to see my keybrod or evenn breeth
20:53 More apologies. The lovely Hazel pressed the switch, the lights went out and my laptop died.
But we are back now, Lord Bonkers had given orders for the boilers to be stoked and ready to go.
20:47 The ARSE is all connected up. The Professor of Hard Sums invites Hazel Grove to press the switch and
20:39 And here he is!
Stopping only to remove his cycle clips, the Revd Hughes takes his place beside the ARSE.
The chaps from the University of Rutland at Belvoir push their glasses up their noses. They clearly mean business.
20:31 Good news!
I have just been informed that the Revd Hughes has left St Asquith's by fast bicycle and will be with us shortly.
20:22 I am sorry about this.
But the delay does give me time to tell you about an incident involving the author of The Rotten State of Britain. Eamonn Butler was being interviewed by Canadian TV this morning. Iain Dale quotes his description of what happened:
There I was, this morning, doing an interview in the office for a Canadian TV station (they took shots of The Rotten State of Britain to use, and asked for a copy too). We'd finished the inside shots, so we went outside to do some set-ups of me walking down the street.
After about 2 minutes up screeched a red police car, and two armoured officers got out to ask our business. Pretty obvious, I'd have thought, since the cameraman had a huge camera on a tripod and the interviewer was carrying one of these big microphones like a shaggy dog. But they had to provide identification and fill in forms – name, address, date of birth, height...
Sure, we're in Westminster, but I wouldn't have thought that Church House, where we are, is a particularly sensitive building.
The cameraman suggested that it was obvious what we were doing, and why did he need to fill in his details. The police officer explained that since we were on at least four different security cameras, they just had to go through the procedure.
It just shows what a rotten state Britain is in.
20:08 While we are waiting for the Revd Hughes let me give the answers to the quiz
1. In which town was Adam Smith born?
The answer is Kirkcaldy.
2. Which Scottish Football League team plays its home games there?
Raith Rovers
3. Who was arrested outside the entrance to Downing Street on 18 June 2006 for carrying a placard saying: "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act"?
The answer we had in mind was Steve Jago. Some sources suggest that a Barbara Tucker was also present, so we won't object if she is mentioned too.
4. What is the name of the proposed government database that will hold details of every child in England?
ContactPoint (It was previously the Information Sharing Index. If they bring me any more Rutland champagne with these delicious canapes I may allow that too.)
5. Who was appointed to head the Better Hospital Food project in 2000? (Correct spelling please.)
Loyd Grossman. Any boy who wrote "Lloyd": see me afterwards.
19:55 Still waiting for the Reverend Hughes.
I am passing the time chatting with Philip "Whoopi" Goldenberg.
19:40 As the sun sets over Rutland Water with a loud hiss, we welcome you to Bonkers Hall for the draw of the winners of Liberal England's book quiz. There are three copies of The Rotten State of Britain to go to the lucky winners.
Lord Bonkers is here, having spent most of the day at the Bonkers' Home for Well-Behaved Orphans "negotiating with some American woman who drives a hard bargain".
As promised, Hazel Grove is here, wearing what I am told is an off the shoulder evening dress with a repeated Bird of Liberty motif. (A long way off, if you ask me.)
And a number of men in dashing anoraks have arrived from the Department of Hard Sums at the University of Rutland. They have with them a stack of computers, screens and dials. Together they make up their Automatic Random Selector for E-mails - or ARSE for short.
The Ballroom at the Hall is thronged with the great and good of the Liberal Democrats and Rutland society.
The only person we are waiting for is the Reverend Hughes.
The three winners of our Rotten State of Britain quiz will be announced tonight. By kind permission of Lord Bonkers, the draw will take place at Bonkers Hall, Rutland. And the whole event will be covered live here on Liberal England.
We shall be using state of the art equipment developed by the University of Rutland's famous Department of Hard Sums to select the winning emails. And, to add glamour to proceedings, the button will be pressed by that lovely lady Lib Dem MP Hazel Grove. The Reverend Hughes will be on hand to ensure fair play.
Join us for what promises to be a glittering evening.
Which Scottish Football League team plays its home games there?
Who was arrested outside the entrance to Downing Street on 18 June 2006 for carrying a placard saying: "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act"?
What is the name of the proposed government database that will hold details of every child in England?
Who was appointed to head the Better Hospital Food project in 2000? (Correct spelling please.)
The latest Liberal England quiz closes at 23:59 on Wednesday 1 April 2009. To win one of three copies of Eamonn Butler's book The Rotten State of Britain, just email me the answers to the following five questions:
In which town was Adam Smith born?
Which Scottish Football League team plays its home games there?
Who was arrested outside the entrance to Downing Street on 18 June 2006 for carrying a placard saying: "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act"?
What is the name of the proposed government database that will hold details of every child in England?
Who was appointed to head the Better Hospital Food project in 2000? (Correct spelling please.)
The Rotten State of Britain aspires to be The State We’re In for the 00s. It’s not - and not just because it is a much easier read than Hutton’s tome.
Whereas his was a narrative about our economy and society, most of The Rotten State of Britain is a series of attacks upon New Labour’s failures, with chapters such as “spin“, “snoopers“ and “nannies“. Naturally, some of these hit their targets better than others. Butler is good on civil liberties and the absurdities of red tape. And I think he‘s wise to not pin the blame for the banking crisis (which he scarcely mentions) upon the government.
However, his whinges about “multicturalism” and “Winterval” suggest he’s overdosed on the Daily Mail.
Just email me the answers to the following five questions before 23:59 on Wednesday 1 April 2009:
In which town was Adam Smith born?
Which Scottish Football League team plays its home games there?
Who was arrested outside the entrance to Downing Street on 18 June 2006 for carrying a placard saying: "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act"?
What is the name of the proposed government database that will hold details of every child in England?
Who was appointed to head the Better Hospital Food project in 2000? (Correct spelling please.)
There are three copies of the book to be won.
This quiz is not open to employees of the Bonkers Hall Estate, nor to current or former inmates of the Bonkers' Home for Well-Behaved Orphans.
In 2007 Liberal England we gave you a chance to win a DVD of the film Taking Liberties.
Now those nice people at Gibson Square have sent me three copies of Eamonn Butler's book The Rotten State of Britain as prizes in a new quiz. The questions will be posted here in a couple of days.
Butler is head of the Adam Smith Institute and the organisation's website describes his book as follows:
Will Hutton's The State We're In famously shredded the record of the Thatcher-Major governments. Now Eamonn Butler shows how – after a decade of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown – the state of Britain has become very much worse than it ought to be.
Corporate publishers rejected Butler's picture of Britain as too cataclysmic and not worth publishing. But now, as the country slides into its worst recession in 70 years, his book The Rotten State of Britain (Gibson Square Books) shows for the first time exactly why Britain is in a worse state than any of the major world economies, how its democracy has been undermined by stealth, and why today's politicians are incapable of finding honest solutions to the problems that they themselves have created.
As an economist and Westminster insider, Dr Butler initially thought New Labour seemed purposeful and businesslike. They promised a new, open kind of government to repair Britain.
Two years later, though, he had become completely disillusioned. New Labour’s words were not backed up by deeds. From his vantage point at the Adam Smith Institute, he started to gather the material that is the basis of this deeply-researched book.
Gordon Brown's obsessive focus on central targets, and his party's willingness to subvert the apparatus of the state for its own party advantage perverted the state over the course of a decade. By stealth a new form of centralized and authoritarian government has been created that is the worst in Britain’s recent history.
Dr Butler scrutinises all aspects of our society and examines the political system, the sleaze, the justice system, the draconian powers the police and public officials have been given under the New Labour government, the surveillance and nanny state, public service bureaucracy and spending, the economy and how we need checks and balances to restrain our political leaders and the unelected advisors who actually control our lives.
With Parliament in recess there was time for a review of Eamonn Butler's book The Rotten State of Britain.
