Life After Death

through Private Members' Bills and through official Government action. I well understood (particularly in the aftermath of the era of 'sleaze') the electorate's desire for change - and there was an inevitability about the election result. No doubt some of the marginal changes will improve things for the better. But what about the fundamentals? As many cheered the rearranging on ministerial chairs, did they weigh up the costs to the weakest and most vulnerable in society? All of Mr Blair's new Cabinet, drawn from the Commons, voted with him for abortion up to and even during birth of disabled babies. None of them takes a position in favour of the rights of the unborn. I know of none who opposes the extension of the Abortion Act - against the wishes of the Northern Irish parties - to the North of Ireland. Clare Short - for whom I have a personal regard and affection - regards those opposed to abortion as a sort of Catholic/Evangelical conspiracy, and has been placed in charge of Overseas Aid and Development. She will be compassionate about aid (and if she can increase the present meagre levels of aid I will be the first to cheer her) but she will enthusiastically back the populationcontrol lobby. The Prime Minister has appointed George Foulkes as her deputy. Mr Foulkes was a keen member of the Parliamentary Population Control Group - and during a debate in 1996, he strongly defended the granting of British taxpayers' money to the Chinese population-control programmes. These ministers will undoubtedly continue to give the millions of pounds which are channelled to China and used towards the one-child policy. Chinese women, including many Christians, will continue to be frequently forcibly aborted or sterilised if they have more than one child. Frank Dobson's Department of Health (which oversees the killing of 180,000 unborn children each year) includes, among a team of Ministers who share his pro-abortion views, Baroness Jay of Paddington. Dobson has publicly stated that he would welcome a Private Member's Bill to abolish the requirement for two doctors to sign the green forms authorising an abortion.

Janus-faced Media and Double Think So the picture is not a happy one. And if the General Election campaign is anything to go by, they will be aided and abetted by the media. Wasn't it extraordinary that the BBC permitted a racist broadcast to be transmitted by the British Movement - on the dubious grounds of free speech - but banned the ProLife Alliance from describing what happens to a child once it has been aborted?

This, according to the double-speaking liberals at Broadcasting House, was because it was in 'bad taste', and on the grounds of public decency. Abortion is cruel, violent and takes a life. Hardly tasteful, hardly decent. Never just a matter for personal choice. In Britain you are entitled to hold any view on everything from Yogic flying to saving the whale, and are guaranteed rights of access to the political process and to the media. But if you dare to question the abortion ethic, your fundamental right to free speech is denied. It is a classic example of liberal double-think. The politically correct censors permit unspeakably violent and brutal material to be broadcast on a daily basis, but cannot countenance a broadcast which truthfully reveals how nearly 600 unborn babies are killed every day. In