Conspiracy theory redux. posted by Richard Seymour

Last year I speculated that Nick Brown had been bagging votes for Blair when he pretended for a while to be a "rebel". Nick Brown, I thought, the blandest Blairite in the whole cabinet - a rebel? So, imagination suddenly aflame, I wrote:

Imagine Tony Blair spies disaster in the offing with both Labour MPs and opposition parties capable of uniting to wreck his latest Flagship Policy, and invites a respected but dismally boring MP into his office for a chat. They talk about how much this bill is going to hurt the government, whether it succeeds or fails. The MP is loyal, and amiable, and what is more he is highly regarded by liberals who might otherwise be moderately suspicious of the government. Tony talks him round the issues, what is at stake for the government, how it could only be avoided by a resounding success for the bill. And suddenly, as if he'd thought of the idea himself, our loyal MP says:

"Well, what if you let me join the rebels? Let me pretend to be their most dedicated and principled spokesman, the one who won't buckle no matter what concessions the Chancellor delivers from his sack. Being a former cabinet member, with no major tarnishes to speak of, they would be hard pressed to turn away from me. Now, then, say I suddenly 'return to the fold' as it were, at the last second, citing aforementioned concessions and my enduring concern for the wellbeing of the Party. That would be certain to send a great shattering crack through any coalition of dissent."

And Blair says:

"Well, there was no need to be fucking wordy about it, Nick, but I take your point."

And over a glass or two of Kristal, they proceed to call in their political advisers, pore over the details and evolve a strategy...

Anyway, I reckon John Denham has been fulfilling more or less the same role in relation to this latest anti-terror law . The more important question is what the implications of this law are. Among those are the obliteration of rights won by revolting barons in the form of the Magna Carta.