Does anyone recognise this parliamentary procedure? You should as it happens all the time!

This appeared on a Times Leader Page in August 2002, and it’s so true that it’s depressing!

• It is at first denied that any radical new plan exists;
• it is then conceded that it exists and, at some point it is finally recognised that it has made such a difference, but it was always known that it would and voters were told so from the outset.
• It is then noted that it exists but ministers swear blind that it is not even on our political agenda;
• it is then noted that it might well be on the agenda but is not a serious proposition;
• it is later conceded that it is a serious proposition, but that it will never be implemented;

… after then it is acknowledged that it will be implemented but in such a diluted form that it could make no difference to the lives of ordinary people …

Do you recognise this? And it isn't just the EU, it is how the government handles any information or plan that the people are wary about. Many of us are aware that this is what happens, but we just resign ourselves to our fate.

If only we had the courage of the Africans and Arabs in North Africa.