George W. Bush isn't the only national leader with contempt for democratic processes, checks and balances, and the rule of law. Tony Blair has never seen a free act he doesn't want to constrain, subsidize, tax, regulate or inspire. The appalling sight of an elected mayor of London being suspended by an unelected bureaucrat because he upset some journalist is a function of Blair's meddling ways. In yesterday's Times of London, William Rees-Mogg, former editor of the paper, let rip:
"The Prime Minister knows what the issue is. He is against due process as such. He has written a most extraordinary attack on the whole concept in yesterday's Observer. The article is so incautious that he must have written it himself.
'In theory,' Tony Blair writes, 'traditional court processes and attitudes to civil liberties could work. But the modern world is different from the world for which these court processes were designed.' This view that due process is obsolete explains the Prime Minister's conduct; it explains the connection between extradition without safeguards, detention without trial, Asbos without criminal offences, subjective and discretionary judgments, police powers to arrest, and increasing ministerial powers. They are all characteristic of Blair legislation; they all avoid due process of law."
It's time for free people to tell these meddling monarchs where to stick it.