15 acts that attact individual rights and freedom
in favour of vastly extending powers of ministers
making them
less answerable to Parliament. a minister
can declare a state of emergency to
seize assets without
compensation
(ie stealing)
set up courts
ban assemblies
hold people in particular areas on the belief that an emergency might be about to occur.
The government is actively
promoting the fear of terrorism and crime
to persuade people they must exchange their freedom
for security.
Boring as fuck but violently powerful
Protection from harassment Act 1997
Civil Contingencies Act 2004
Inquiries Act 2005
Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill (trying to be smuggled in, 2006)
This first was designed
to combat stalkers and campaigns of intimidation
but is being used
to control protest.
This last in its original draft
would have allowed ministers to make
laws without reference to
elected representatives.
Did you hear about the woman who sent 2 emails to a pharmaceutical company?
She was prosecuted for repeated conduct.
Who is she? I want to hear her story.
ASBO legislation makes hearsay admissible as evidence
standards of evidence
are
lower
than in a normal
court – a pre-emptive strike
a fast track to prison
small measures of control and censorship
add up over time
to a society of a completely different
flavour
the threat of terrorism is being used to justify measures
which have no relevance to attacking terrorism effectively
FROG BOILING
We live not in a police state but a controlled state.
Who are you controlling?
How happy / stressed does that make you?
Blair now wants legislation to limit thepowers of British courts
to interpret the human
rights act
even Churchill said that the point
of human rights is that they treat
the innocent, the suspect, the convict
e q u a l l y
Helena Kennedy accuses ministers
of seeing themselves as the
embodiment of the state
Simon Davies
LSE pioneering work on ID card scheme
then the government did not agree with
his findings
July 5, 2006 at 12:56 am
On Sunday 18th June, a man was arrested for distributing the article that generated this post.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article1129827.ece