Our liberal fascism

At the Turf Tavern in Oxford, just before the smoking ban came in. A 'Times' journalist told a droll story last week. When she'd lit up at a private Christmas party a woman had asked her if she'd mind smoking outside --where it was cold and pouring with rain. The journalist wrote that what galled her particularly was that it was her party in her flat... We live in liberal fascist times. The causes alter, following the zeitgeist, but the dictatorial, interfering, know-it-all mindset stays the same. If Hitler or Stalin had been re-born in the 60's, in Britain, he might now be a New Labour M.P., ending habeas corpus, banning hunting and smoking, setting up millions of CCTV cameras, imposing Health and Safety restrictions and identity cards, and anti-discrimination laws of intimidating vagueness. In a handwritten letter to me, my sister wrote that she had nothing against immigrants so long as they didn't exploit our welfare system-- but then Tippexed it out. She confessed in a phone-call what she had written, and that she'd got scared it might be seen as racist and illegal.

While she had nothing to fear in this instance, it is terrifying that we now have 'hate' laws which are based entirely on someone's interpretation of what we intended. Liberal fascism often seems so benevolent that it's harder to fight against intellectually than Nazism or Communism.