UK: "An authoritarian state is in the process of construction" (Guardian)

[Minstrel Boy]

From today's Guardian:

An authoritarian state is in the process of construction
Without a single terrorist attack in Britain, our liberties are being removed

John Upton
Monday February 23, 2004
The Guardian

The news that M15 is to increase its numbers by a thousand is merely the latest instance of David Blunkett's rampant authoritarianism. The secret state's claim that it is losing the never-ending, unprovable war against terror will play its part in the government winning a far greater prize. Across the range of his responsibilities - immigration, policing, the criminal justice system and prisons - Blunkett has either proposed or actually introduced measures whose repressive nature should shock us. That, by now, we may have become inured to them, does not take away from the fact that New Labour is trying to radically change the constitutional environment in which we live.

The home secretary has, among other things, sought to remove sentencing powers from judges; weaken safeguards for those accused of criminal offences; remove the right of jury trial; criminalise asylum seekers; and form a national gendarmerie. While five of the British citizens detained at Camp Delta are to be repatriated with the possibility that they will not face criminal charges, the government continues to run its own little Guantanamo at Belmarsh prison. A number of foreign nationals suspected of having links with terrorism are being detained indefinitely and without trial. Blunkett is assembling a body of repressive legislation of a type not seen in western Europe since the second world war.

There is a stock of evidence to suggest that the home secretary is pursuing a deliberate line which, if unchecked, will result in a significant constitutional shift. The source of this change does not originate with Blunkett or his New Labour predecessor, Jack Straw. Its roots are to be found in the clash between Thatcherite attitudes to criminal justice, immigration and - to a lesser extent - terror, and those integrationist values expressed in the post-1945 social democratic consensus.

...

Shouldn't this government's strident moves towards corporatist, directorial government give us pause? The time has surely come to formally delimit the powers of the different actors - government, parliament and judiciary - in the constitution. The home secretary relies on the fact that most of us are not affected by his illiberal experiments to govern by way of the exception. We remain docile in the face of his extraordinary measures against those we are encouraged to consider as outcasts. But if he is allowed to continue imposing measures unsuited to our liberal conception of the state, how long will it be before we too become "the other"?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,12780,1153964,00.html

[barbaraann]

1. I think it's time for us liberals to adopt the motto

Live Free or Die.

I'll drink hemlock before I live under a 1984-type regime, which Bush, Blair, etc. are creating.

[proud patriot]

3. I fly the "culpepper minuteman" in my front yard

see it here
http://www.ultimateflags.com/usahist/donttreadwhite.html

[barbaraann]

7. Thanks for the link.

That is definitely an inspiring flag.

[el_gato]

2. where the hell is the opposition

all I see is a bunch of candy ass boot lickers

[Minstrel Boy]

5. Here it is:

I haven't seen it often enough, but I haven't seen it anywhere but in the streets.

[T_i_B]

8. I was one of them

I went on a total of 6 anti-war marches.

[gandalf]

4. Thanks for posting. Guardian is a fine newspaper

if it had some more news on Germany, I would cancel my German newspaper and read The Guardian.

[pink_poodle]

6. Asscrack by a different name. Same movement by..............

their neo-cons in conjunction with your neo-cons.

[tom_paine]

9. Sounds like the Busheviks--British branch want to take the UK out of the

Free World, as has happened with Imperial Amerika.

You thought you were safe, DUer Brits, but one thing Hitler taught us all is THAT NO ONE IS SAFE!

Now here it comes. Get ready to join Imperial Amerika.

May you have better luck battling Bushevik Tyranny than we have.

[sweetheart]

10. And this on the heels blairs drugs testing for schools idea..

F**king idiot. Clearly bush's state of the union so impressed blair
that he is inspired to try out a similar regimen in the UK, as
hell, what is blair if not a cheap neocon.

He knows, if his ears were not blocked during the big conversation,
that ending prohibition is the best and fastest way to put the
drugs problem to rest... but why be intelligent when you can give
bush a blowjob and smile with monkey jism all over his face.

What a greasy moron.

[Lorien]

11. Kick

:kick:

[Minstrel Boy]

12. The Pentagon report on climage change said Britain

could be experiencing Siberian-like conditions in 10 years or so. Blair simply chose to add the Gulag option.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

13. It's all dependent on the Gulf Stream.

If the Gulf Stream were to be cooled, the UK, which has a latitude similar to Northern Canada (54-58 degrees) would rapidly drop in temperature.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

14. Can't we sue Blair et al for misuse of the terms 'Social Democratic'

and 'Labour Party'. Not to mention 'Parliamentary Democracy'