Peter Kenyon, a member of the Labour Party National Executive Committee, has suggested on his blog and Labourhome that any criticism of the economic policies our country is pursuing should be considered treason.
Any politician that continues to whinge about debt levels is debasing the currency. Rather than focussing on Conservative shadow home affairs spokesman Damian Green and the hamfisted way in which the police handled their investigation into a possible serial leaker of government documents, I’m much more concerned to see Conservatives in the dock charged with treason for undermining sterling.
Well first, let’s point out that you can’t talk down something that’s strong. It would be an interesting case, particularly as it would almost certainly result in a Tory counter-claim against the man who was in charge of the Treasury for ten years post-1997.
The case however would have less merit than the one currently being pressed against the editor of Labourhome. In his eminent wisdom, Mr. Kenyon has consulted with advanced sources on the law to reach this conclusion. Perhaps if he’d dug a little deeper, he’d have discovered that:
treason today comprises only:
- Treason Act 1351:
- compassing the death of the Sovereign, or of the Sovereign’s wife or eldest son and heir;
- violating the Sovereign’s wife, or the Sovereign’s eldest unmarried daughter, or the Sovereign’s eldest son’s wife;
- levying war against the Sovereign in the United Kingdom;
- adhering to the Sovereign’s enemies, giving them aid and comfort, in the realm or elsewhere;
- killing the King’s Chancellor, Treasurer (an office long in commission) or Justices;
- Treason Act 1702 and Treason Act (Ireland) 1703:
- attempting to hinder the succession to the throne under the Bill of Rights 1689 and the Act of Settlement 1701;
- Treason Act 1708:
- killing the Lords of Session or Lords of Justiciary in Scotland; and
- (in Scottish law only) counterfeiting the Great Seal of Scotland.
What’s more concerning is that he is seemingly unaware that a politician expressing severe reservations about the government of the day is not treason, but the performance of his constitutional duty. The governing party is not expected to like what the opposition is saying. Calling such criticism treasonable behaviour is beyond contemptuous.
If Labour wish to pursue this line of attack, then let them do so. It will fall flat on its face, and feed in to the “ZaNU-Labour” meme that some are pursuing. It also undermines their claim that the Conservatives have nothing serious to say about the economy. George Osborne is either a market-mover or a lightweight, but he cannot be both.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
“adhering to the Sovereign’s enemies, giving them aid and comfort, in the realm or elsewhere;”
I’m sure that there must be at least one labour MP out there who would be liable on grounds of being overly friendly in times past to either the PIRA or those delightful chaps on the other side of the Iron Curtain.
Wouldn’t it be a lark to ask the police to investigate?
Oh yes indeed. We could continue by investigating Sinn Féin, George Galloway and so on. Then we could suggest that the EU is the enemy of the sovereign through its usurpation of her powers, and arrest the vast majority of Lib Dem and Labour MPs not already languishing in the Tower. Then we can bang up the ones who suggest amending the Act of Settlement for allowing those dastardly papists within reach of the throne, and any others who suggest that the oath of allegiance be re-worded. Anyone who suggests that tractor production in the last ten years hasn’t quadrupled will likewise have to be sacked for denting the public’s confidence in the government’s ability to do everything.
Just to make sure that the rot doesn’t spread, we can seize voting data from the parties to round up everyone who voted in these Parliamentarians, as they are clearly in agreement with these treasonous sentiments.
Anyone who’s been abroad in the past few years will of course have to be imprisoned in case they came into contact with some Johnny Foreigner who didn’t immediately prostrate himself and plead to become a subject of the crown.
The result will be a most effective government of a rump of probably no more than two-dozen backbenchers elected in 2005. A most wonderful invention I am sure as it will necessitate the abolition of many ministerial posts on the grounds of there not being enough MPs to fill them. This will, of course, not matter, as the vast majority of the population will be in prison and the rest will be employed to guard over them.
Even then this may be too optimistic a vision. My guess is that the only MP left standing would be Hazel Blears for her frightening ability to remain on-message regardless of what the message is, governing over what little of the population weren’t paying attention to the last twenty years or so.
Government of the redhead, by a redhead, for the airheads.
Point taken. But I’m still in favour of opportunistic persecution. :p