Is the British government as dishonest as the U.S. government?
That’s the question on my mind as I contemplate this news of an astounding plot to blow up the Concorde with a giant carry-on bag full of nail polish remover white-out some unspecificed dangerous liquid. Or whatever the plot was. Anyway, the reason I ask, of course, is that last month our government pretended that it had foiled a plot to flood Manhattan with nail polish remover white-out the Hudson River, which wasn’t actually, you know, true. So I’m just wondering.
10 Responses to “Is the British government as dishonest as the U.S. government?”
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will says:
I am having the same thoughts.
I will wait and see.
I keep remembering the poor kid who was shot on the subway.
August 11th, 2006 at 11:27 am EST -
BAC says:
I’m wondering, too. I’m also wondering why the announcement took so long? Doesn’t
RoveHomeland Security usually issue these warnings before anelectionarrest?BAC
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Jimmy Ho says:
I keep remembering the poor kid who was shot on the subway.
Jean Charles de Menezes, a Brazilian worker whose assassination has been covered by Anthony Blair. He too is a victim of terrorism.
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Violet says:
This piece in The Age is excellent: Who Benefits from Security Hysteria?
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richard cherry says:
Oh please - we’re British!!! We have no need to fib about things like the vast stocks of WMDs that even now lie in the deserts of Iraq waiting to be discovered if only people will look. And that De Menezes chap was merely posing as an electrician as he wore a big heavy coat in Summer and vaulted the barrier at the Tube station - errm I’m sorry that should have read: wore a t-shirt as he walked quietly and inserted his ticket in the barrier in the normal way. Apoolgies; radio went a bit crackly there.
However the point is that neither Mr Blair who runs the UK nor Mr Blair who runs the Metropolitain Police (now that’s scary…) would ever tell a lie. Honest.
Not without their lips moving anyway.
And I think the list of things you can now carry onto the three planes that are still flying from this country seems not to include clothes. Not that you’ll have any clean after queeing at Heathrow for 4 days. I imagine a line of naked travellers at JFK being asked whether they have any fruit or vegetables (sorry - sore point from the man who arrived in the states 20 years ago with a rtomato sandwich. And those american police have guns!) Somewhat surreal but it would speed the intimate body searches on the US side. -
richard cherry says:
…and I see that even Dr Socks has toughened security for the site - I had to enter my security code 4 times and be tutted at by my computer before I could post that last one.
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Mandos says:
The first time I crossed from Canada into the You-Essay for a conference (not imagining at all that I would eventually get stranded here for years), I was doing the preclearance thing at Pearson International in Toronto. For non-travellers-from-Canada-to-the-US, long ago, Canada made a Faustian bargain that for easy access to every single airport and civilian airstrip and airfield in the US (as opposed to designated International ones), Canada would designate a part of every airport as US soil and have US border guards and customs agents RIGHT THERE—so you cross the border inside Canada! This is called “preclearance”. (Canadians also have the ability to use imaginary visas.)
Anyway, so I was doing the preclearance thing, and I received the standard air travel customs form, the blue card thing. As people who’ve done this know, it has a series of Yes/No questions including something like, “Are you bringing any food products into the US?”
Now, in those days, I wasn’t so extravagant as to actually buy food at the airport, so I brought a chicken bologna sandwich in a tupperware container with me. So I thought, “Well, Mandos, this is the first time you’ve *flown* into the US (driven several times before), so you’d better tell the truth this time.” And I ticked “Yes”.
I showed it to the border guard and he asked me what I brought. When I told him, he looked at me funny and wrote “A” in red marker (I was tempted to “improve” it with a circle…). The agent at the final crossing took a look at it and shunted me off to the side. There, I waited in line, ahead of some guy with a big bag of fresh habaneros from South America (he was allowed into the US with them eventually).
Eventually, I got to the head of the line. I pulled the tupperware out of my bag. I showed opened it for the USDA agent (an intimidating Indian matron-type). She put on some latex gloves, opened my sandwich, and fondled my meat.
Then she sniffed disdainfully, pulled off her gloves, and told me to go through the exit door.
I went through the wrong door.
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Jimmy Ho says:
A timely reminder by Mikhaela B. Reid. At the time, the best blogging I’ve seen about this was by Prometheus 6. I wish Linton Kwesi Johnson had made an updated version of “Liesense fi Kill”.
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richard cherry says:
And while we’re enquiring about the dishonesty of thsoe noble institutions, we should ask ‘Is the British electorate stupider than the American one?’ I mean, we actually elected our bunch of arse - as far as I know anyway. Still - the House of Commons is an excellent place to keep crooks occupied.
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will says:
where is the George Allen racist post!?!?!??
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