baldysblog.co.uk

There is absolutely no case for extending detention without charge beyond 28 days and even that (28 days), is questionable in itself. I would suggest that Parliament generally and the Labour Government specifically, have completely failed to grasp the core issues here. Everybody needs to stand back and reassess the whole issue from a different perspective, a perspective of protecting society as best as possible without destroying what you are trying to protect, namely freedom, democracy and the rule of law.

Ever since Labour came to power in 1997 and the Dunblaine Massacre, they as a Government have had a demented fixation that piling legislation on top of other legislation will solve problems. I have lost count of just how many Criminal Justice and anti-terror Bills they have passed, all to no avail and a product of a “Must do Something” mentality, they would have been far more effective by doing less and what they did do, was carefully thought through properly.

When people look at the mess in Iraq all they do is play the “blame game”, if this, if that… What they fail to understand is that a mainly tribal society was not and is not prepared to pay the price that democracy always has demanded, “ I will die for your right to say that…” I doubt there is one Shia in the whole of Iraq prepared to lay down his life for the rights of a Sunni, I doubt that even a Shia would be prepared to lay down his life for a fellow Shia from a different clan. And the relevance of this ?

We in Britain have to decide whether we sacrifice not just the liberties of an “Asian suspect” but, our own liberties too. Destroy the basis of equality before the Law and just because you are white Anglo Saxon, it will not protect you from being abused by the Law as an old man who heckled Blair found out at a Labour Party Conference, he was arrested under a Prevention of Terrorism Law. We have to decide whether we want to live in a Police State or accept that the price of our liberty may well be that we need to lay down our lives as over 50 people did on 7/7.

We may live in a risk averse society but the reality is that terrorist outrages and particularly by suicide bombers cannot be totally eliminated. During the IRA’s bombing campaign on the UK mainland many people were killed and maimed by perpetrators who had no intention of getting caught let alone being killed, imagine the greater devastation of someone who is prepared to walk into a crowded place and blow themselves up. It is not just our Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan who are in the “front line”, we all are and I for one, if my destiny is to die in such an incident, would want to die for principles that mirror Magna Carta and not those of an Orwellian Police State.

Rather than waste effort on pointless gesture politics, why doesn’t the Government scrap that useless ID Card project, all the 7/7 bombers would have had one anyway and spend the money on proper Border Police and Customs Officers. Either the threat is external in which case you “lock the door” by default or, it is internal and you don’t get your biggest potential asset on side by framing Laws obviously aimed at them. The first line of defence are the British Muslim community and just saying “58 days or 90” will not be heard by them as an “exception” but as the “norm” plus a sub text of “Anti-Muslim” this does not encourage cooperation does it ?

Some years ago the Police were “restrained” on doing stop and searches of black Britons, today the same procedure applied to Asian youths is having the same negative effect on their view of “authority”. All policing is by consent, the Tories are right, extend the period and pass it into Law, it will be used and most likely, inappropriately. Require an extension using “Emergency Powers” and it is a deliberate act based upon an individual set of circumstances and has to be justified. The risk of dying in a terror related incident in the UK is very small, tiny in comparison to surrendering your liberty through accepting bad Laws passed in Brown’s Rump Parliament, there the risk to your personal Liberty and the blood of your forefathers wasted in winning it, is total.