This is a second Facebook rant, or, perhaps more accurately, a desperate plea for people to do something about UK human rights while we still have the chance. I can't seem to get Facebook to give me a link to the specific post, but it's on my timeline.
Since the election, there have been comments from "the right" that "the left" are complaining unjustly about the election result, that this is "sour grapes" or they are being "bad losers". I believe that this betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of democracy.
Democracy does not consist of voting for an MP once every five years, then sitting on our backsides and waiting for the next election. If democracy is to mean anything, it includes the right to express opinions and seek to influence any matter of public policy, at any time - all the more so if that policy is likely to cause harm to oneself or those one is concerned about. I might indeed say that this is a duty: how can policy be made fairly unless it is properly informed?
I can't say that I exercised this right before Friday 8th May 2015; I neglected this duty, at least partly because I did not see that it was needed. I am not neglecting it now. Human rights in this country are far too important a matter on which to remain silent.
I am reminded of Pastor Martin Niemöller's poem, starting: "First they came for the Communists; and I did not speak out, for I was not a Communist". We are, it seems, on the verge of writing one for the UK, starting: "First they came for the extremists, and I did not speak out, for I was not an extremist". I am not an extremist, but I am speaking out, now, while I still can. How does the poem end? "When they came for me, there was no-one left to speak out for me."
I beg you all to speak out.
