A sorry day for New Labour

Last updated at 09:27 30 September 2005


Apologies, aologies and more apologies, all of them begrudged; orchestrated hand-wringing, a calculated show of contrition and hypocrisy by the bucketful; can anyone detect a scintilla of genuine sincerity in New Labour's belated attempts to excuse its shameful treatment of Walter Wolfgang?

There certainly wasn't a hint of regret when conference goons outrageously manhandled this frail, 82-year-old refugee from Hitler's Germany, for the heinous offence of briefly heckling Jack Straw.

It took five hours before an offensively half-hearted apology could be dragged out of party chairman Ian McCartney - and even then, he couldn't resist peddling the falsehood that Mr Wolfgang had repeatedly tried to disrupt proceedings.

But this time the tactic of the smear - which New Labour always uses to demonise critics, from Dr David Kelly to 94-year-old NHS patient Rose Addis - rebounded. Nothing could explain away the nastiness of the scenes inside the hall.

So yesterday the spinmeisters tried a new tactic, arranging a series of apologies to defuse this affair. Tony Blair said he was "very sorry" while stressing he had not been there, as though this unpleasantness had nothing to do with him.

But this didn't happen in a vacuum. For eight years, Mr Blair's spin machine has promoted lies, media manipulation and the crushing of dissent. Now he has reduced Labour's conference to drilled conformity, with heavies to jump on anyone who dares to exercise freedom of speech.

Even that isn't the worst of it. When Mr Wolfgang tried to re-enter the hall, he was detained by police using their powers under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

So now a law to stop bombers is used to stifle peaceful protest - this under a Government that is demanding even greater power, including the right to hold suspects for three months without trial.

The nation has been given a disturbing insight into the intolerance of a controlfreak party. And a frightening insight into how Draconian laws can be abused.

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