We hear the word ‘freedom’ bandied about a lot, especially recently where many people have been talking about freedom of the press in the context of the new Leveson press controls. Freedom is important in general, whether that be press freedom, freedom to practice your own peaceful religion, freedom of speech, freedom of thought or freedom to ask questions of authority.

All of these freedoms, that Britons fought and often died to achieve and preserve, were either lost or curtailed under either a Labour government or by socialists and so-called ‘progressives’ in general.

Like a vicious and stubborn Biblical Pharoah, whipping cowering Israelites into submission both physical and mental, Labour and the Left have bludgoned the British people into being frightened of their State and often frightened to speak up against wrongs. They have done this by using legislation and the organs of the state to punish those who speak out, or who have views that the Left do not like and are counter to the Leftist worldview.

The issue of Press Freedom has been covered elsewhere and on this blog in more depth, but it cannot be denied that the Hacked Off campaign and the accompanying ‘me too’ chorus of ‘waa waa nasssty Rupert’ has been heavily dominated by the political Left. This Left has brought about legislation that could be used by a future Labour government to stifle dissent or hide scandal. Do not believe that the tears shed by the Left for the Dowlers et al are genuine, they are only crocodile tears and a tool to get what they want.

Labour also attacked the rights of Britons to practice their own peaceful religion by pandering to an Islamic ideology that is intolerant of the beliefs of others and which says that Christians, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs and others should be either treated as third class citizens or killed. Labour’s Racial and Religious Hatred Bill until it was amended by the House of Lords, would have forbade all criticism of religions especially those that were considered minority ones. This legislation has been seen as Labour’s bribe to Britain’s Islamic community to keep them voting Labour, especially after the Iraq war. Thankfully the Lords amended the legislation to allow people to mock all religions provided that there was no intent to ‘stir up hatred’ (personally I don’t see anything wrong with stirring up people to hate fascism whether that be secular or religious fascism). Legislation that primarily protects Islam, which this Act surely does, puts in danger members of other faiths who are often the targets of Islamic ideology and oppression. If people feel uncomfortable and frightened about speaking up about Islam’s hatred for Christians, Jews and others, then that does make things less safe for those with a peaceful Christian, Jewish or other faith.

Freedom of speech has been attacked by Labour under the guise of various equality laws and the subsequent fear of arrest for ‘hate speech’ . Now no sensible person has a problem with someone being treated equally. We are all individuals with different opinions, different life experiences and different outlooks and we should all be treated the same under any law. Labour’s equality and other laws did not bring real equality, but instead created ‘protected classes’ of people for reasons of religion, race, gender and sexuality. If you are a woman who commits a crime you are considered a ‘victim’ and are unlikely to get jail time, if you are non white you can play the ‘race card’ in disputes and it is a card which trumps some others. If you are Muslim you can commit an offence, even a sexual offence, and walk from the court with a suspended sentence because the judge has to take into account the backward upbringing the Muslim offender has had, and if you are a Gay activist you can bully a small bed and breakfast hotel into submission by using Labour’s equality and ‘hate speech’ laws.

Freedom of thought is intimately connected with freedom of speech. If you cannot voice your opinions, experiences and thoughts and test them in an open marketplace of ideas then that is not healthy either. Not being able to speak your mind for fear of judgement or punishment causes people to keep quiet and just follow orders. That sort of attitude and that sort of fear should have no place in a civilised, democratic and open society.

Labour during their Governmental reign and in the often corrupt local Labour ‘one party states’ comes down hard on those who dissent from Labour policy. If you question the wisdom of unrestricted and often damaging immigration levels then you are, in the Labour view, a xenophobe.

If you question the pandering to Islam, you became an ‘Islamophobe’ and if you questioned the giving of extra rights, above those of the majority population, to other minorities then you were a ‘homophobe’ or worse, the Left wingers favourite ‘snarl word’, ‘racist’. Labour killed off with glee, the idea that the citizen should question authority without fear and Labour either ignored or denigrated such questions or worse legislated against the expression of them.

The arrogance of Labour and how it treated the British people, and still sadly treats them where it has been allowed to, is like that of a slavemaster whipping a slave for perceived insubordination.

People need to wake up and see that everytime Labour use the word ‘freedom’, that they do not mean it. Behind the bland but sometimes seductive words of people like Milliband are those who see themselves as a little pharoahs, and these ‘little pharoahs’ will have no compunction about whipping you into submission, sometimes by using the politicised police forces that Labour created.

The British people need to flee from Pharonic Labour, like the ancient Israelites fled from the armies of the Egyptian Pharoah, and cross their own personal Red Sea, and reclaim the freedoms that Labour quietly and stealthily took from them.

Let us hope that the future shows the Socialist horse (often with its Islamic rider) falling down as the waves of citizens’ indignation come back to cover and drown them.

British citizens need to think whether they want slavery under Labour or freedom under someone else. Many of us have chosen freedom and the hope is that in 2014 those of us who believe in a smaller, less intrusive, less proscriptive state will be able to say: ‘Next year in Westminster’ and be contemplating a future with less Labour or Left parliamentarians and more freedom.

People took their eyes off the ball with regarding the curtailment of various freedoms between ’97 and 2010, this should never happen again. Freedom doesn’t defend itself, freedom needs to be fought for every day, in the courts, amongst friends and colleagues and particularily at the ballot box.  The British people should endeavour to be a plague (or ten) on the socialists who have damaged our society and we should no longer consent to be silenced about the problems that leftist ideology has caused.