Civil Disobedience

Because the updates on the Hunt Defenders post are getting confusing, I'm bringing it back up to the top.

John says that "I do not support it and have not said anywhere that I do" is a vague condemnation. I'm happy to accept that in the spirit that it's offered.

He further says "I certainly consider physical violence as a possible form of civil disobedience, but I do not give it my support." I think that's a little further than I would go, but it's a logical position, the whole issue is an interesting debate I would like to have when cooler heads prevail.

One more comment "Indeed, I remember as a younger man feeling simply dreadful the day that taxi driver was killed by a protesting miner when he threw that concrete slab off that bridge and it is not something I have forgotten." I remember that day, it was probably worse for me, I was 12, the miners were my heroes, I felt much the same about Thatcher as it seems John thinks about Blair now. Up until then, at least to me, the miners held the high moral ground, I knew a policeman (my best friend's elder brother) who flew up to Nottinghamshire every week and came home to boast about beating up (his words) picketing miners, that one comment has remained with me forever. In my mind, Scargill could do no wrong (well, I was only 12). But then that poor taxi driver died, and it was my heroes who had killed him. I remember I went through the denial, the justifications, but it very soon dawned on me that the miners had been wrong. It doesn't matter how right you are, it's not worth that. It seemed to me that the steam went out of the strike at that moment, as people came to the same realisation as me.

John has said that the protesters have overstepped the mark and I applaud him for that. I'd better get off and do some work, no more posts until this evening.