Trading freedom for prosperity

Why has the Left become so suspicious of civil liberties? Why has the Right hijacked the issue and turned it to its advantage? A dozen years of New Labour rule have left this sorry legacy. A party that should have intervened for social justice and greater equality instead allowed the markets to let rip. Having raised the white flag to the bankers, ministers instead sought to exert their power elsewhere, at the level of the citizen, seeking ever more ingenious ways of watching us, listening to us and telling us how to lead our lives. I am no Freudian psychoanalyst, but I can find no better example of displacement theory in modern politics.
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Abu Dhabi court fines editor

On 2 July, the Federal Court of Appeal fined Sami al-Araimi 20,000 dirhams and suspend his newspaper, Emarat Alyoum, of which Araimi is editor-in-chief, for 20 days. The conviction stems from an October 2006 article in the paper alleging a UAE-based company gave steroids to local race horses owned by the Abu Dhabi royal family.

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