Police State
Accusations such as this are often overused, but a police state is exactly what we will have if Tony Blair’s proposed new terrorism law is passed by Parliament. If it is, then anyone walking down the street can be stopped and interrogated by the police - if they refuse to divulge who they are, where they have come from, and where they are going, they could be fined or even put in prison.
The fact that such a thing could even be considered by a government which claims to be democratic is monstrous. Anyone who doubts the sinister nature of these powers need look no further than Blair’s own comments:
We have chosen as a society to put the civil liberties of the suspect (…) first. I happen to believe this is misguided and wrong.
Blair seems to be forgetting that the whole point of terrorism is to destroy our way of life. When we start punishing people without a trial (or without even enough evidence to put a person on trial), we destroy our democracy and hence do the terrorists’ job for them. Thank whatever deity you believe in that we’re getting rid of this dangerous man next month.
These proto-fascists need to be opposed at every turn - our only hope is that our MPs discover some spine between now and October, when this travesty is due to be voted on by the Commons. Thank you very much to everyone who voted Labour at the last General Election, and forced this lot on the 67% of us who didn’t. We know who to blame if these people succeed in destroying our democratic state.
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