The forcible ejection of the mild-mannered heckler Walter Wolfgang from the Labour conference hall leaves a bad taste in the mouth about the state of democracy in the UK. For me, two points stand out in particular.
First, Labour’s spin machine gave the impression that the octogenarian was a persistent heckler, whereas it seems he just shouted the single word “nonsense” to Straw’s justification of the Iraq war.
The second point relates to the arrest of Mr Wolfgang under anti-terrorism laws. Where does that leave the government’s argument that anti-terror laws are not an attack on civil liberties? Should the millions who agree that the case for the war was based on “nonsense” also be arrested? Are we all guilty of glorifying terrorism by leaping to Mr Wolfgang’s defence?
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