Labour's Surveillance State moves a step closer to a Police State ?
Yesterday's Sunday Times "leak" which seemed to show that it is no longer just a Surveillance State which we have to worry about under this Labour Government but an actual Police State, with the proposal to return to nationwide "sus" laws, under the pretext of the threat of terrorism.
This seems to be the annual exercise in ignoring any principled or practical objections to the latest Labour flirtations with a fascist / communist style Police State
It now appears from today's media reports, that the Police themselves were not actually pressing for such powers to stop, search, demand identification and information about your movements, all without having to have any reasonable suspicion of criminality.
The otherwise largely irrelevant Labour Party Deputy Leadership campaign (there is no guarantee that the winner of this contest will become Deputy Prime Minister as well) also seems to have got mixed up in this political kite flying.at the ignoble end to Tony Blair's premiership.
Where does Gordon "Macavity" Brown stand on these issues? Who knows? The media reports that "friends" of Gordon Brown are not smiling on Tony Blair and John Reid's proposals are not the same as a clear statement from the Prime Minister in Waiting. Is he just dithering again ?
Note how this "debate" has not involved any formal statements to Parliament, or the publication of a Draft Bill, or even of any sort of Public Consultation, it has all been done via the weekend mainstream media.
The current Northern Ireland Secretary of State Peter Hain managed to half criticise these proposals, but, according his rival for the Labour Party Deputy Leadership, former Home Office Minister in charge of the Police and Counter Terrorism Hazel Blears the idea originated in the Northern Ireland bureaucracy, where, astonishingly, similar powers are due to lapse as part of the Northern Ireland peace agreements.
Of course it took the current incumbent junior Minister at the newly re-organised / confused Home Office (is it really now the "Ministry of Injustice" ?) Tony McNulty (who was in charge of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate when John Reid described this section of the Home Office bureaucracy as "not fit for purpose", yet who failed to resign) to witter on about this allegedly leaked memo (note that no "leak inquiry" seems to have been threatened), and that there would be some sort of cross party "consultation" over the summer, before the latest "new" anti-terrorism legislation in the autumn.
See
The Labour Government seems to be trying to convert public contempt into actual hatred of it and its ill thought out yet repressive policies, which only seem to aid the cause of terrorists in trying to destroy our society..
Under this Labour Government, there is never any carrot to go with the stick of repression. They seem incapable of admitting that they have made and will continue to make mistakes and will persecute innocent people caught up in the bureaucracy of the Police State which they are extending every year.
Where are the independent Public Inquiries ? Where are the prompt, generous financial compensation packages to either the victims of terrorism or to the innocent people wrongly accused of terrorism ? Where are the simple, genuine public apologies from petty officials and politicians ?
Comments
Thanks for pointing out that no one has mentioned a leak enquiry; depsite his smug Tweedledumesque features popping up on every channel, not one interviewer asked Tony McNulty about the origin of the leak. So we can assume it was an official briefing to a tame journalist.
Was it coincidence it comes out on a long bank holiday weekend when there was little chance people would pay that much attention to it?
And is there any chance the Speaker of the HoC will drag McNulty or his master to the dispatch box to explain how the policy was leaked?
So far the only person who's made much of the leak is - dear god - Harriet Harman. It shows how bad things must be if Harriet (bless) is our last best hope against a police state (though to be fair, it looks like the police were as much in the dark about McNulty/Reid and Blair's brainwave as the rest of us).
Anyone know what Gordon thinks of McNulty? Is he a man on his way out (and not before time), or one of those about to join the loyal ranks of the Brownites?
Posted by: iCowboy | May 29, 2007 2:35 AM
One of the primary objectives of any terrorist campaign is to provoke the government into promulgating repressive measures, so driving a wedge between it and the general population. This neo-fascist government has marched at breakneck speed into that trap.
Posted by: The Laughing Cavalier | May 30, 2007 3:36 PM