Guardian Watch: Gestapo Tactics

Anyone who has paid any attention to the news in the last few days will have undoubtedly come across reference to Sarah Helm's My family's ordeal in police probe article in Sunday's Observer.

In the article, Sarah Helm; journalist, author and wife to Tony Blair's former chief of staff Jonathan Powell, complains about the Assistant Commisioner John Yates Gestapo tactics while investigating the cash-for-honours allegations.

Describing the hell her family was put through in the last few months, Helm isolates an incident when police (legitimately) question Ruth Turner over her role in the affair, bemoaning how the police "Pick on a woman living alone, give her a scare and hope she'll slip up."

Am i the only one who finds this a little bit hypocritical?

Coming from an administration that has presided over the greastest assault on civil liberties in post-war years, knowingly allowed US extraordinary rendition flights through its territory and introduced more new offences than any government before it, Helm's charge would be laughable if wasn't so insulting to the thousands of people who are now feeling the sharp end of New Labour's New Britain.

The Labour leadership obviously couldn't resist bringing down some heat on Yates and is men, and in Helm they've found a relatively indirect way of doing it, free from the uncomfortable questions any formal legal proceedings might dredge up.

As a piece of journalism the article reads like it would be more at home in Pick Me Up than The Observer with Helm adopting an outraged, anecdotal tone to underline the concerned mother angle and maximise effect.

One positive aspect does come from the article however:

For those worried that The Observer has strayed from its leftist roots, this piece of pravda-esque reporting should no doubt put them a little more at ease. (ouch!)

Stampedes at Harry Potter Book Launch.

Forget class, race and religion, the country is being divided by new polarising forces: Those who were eagerly awaiting the fifth Harry Potter book at 12:01 am today, and those who were laughing at them.

Transcending traditional barriers of social status, intellect and taste, Harry Potter and the Marketing Dream is causing pitched battles in some unexpected quarters.

Never mind the media meatgrinder which has been manufacturing anticipation for months, some hitherto fellow travellers have been making strange noises which are starting to make me feel just a little bit queasy.

So what's the deal?

I can excuse the children (just about) as they don't know any better, but i have a hard time making sense of why fully grown people with jobs and everything are so willing to buy into this syndicated rubbish. The books may well be good, but can they really be that good?

I suspect its more down to blunt marketing, and the fear of having nothing to say at parties, that is driving this race to the bottom.

Most of all I feel sorry for the kids who are likely being denied the opportunity to discover the diverse and rare delights of childrens literature, as it is crowded out by the sequels, spin-offs, games and movies of the Rowling Regime.

This is a Liberal Democracy and theoretically people should be allowed to read what they want, but perhaps this is what was worrying de Tocqueville when he wrote about the Tyranny of the Majority.

Time for a good old fashioned book burning...