If Martin Salter MP gets his way, the Thought
Police will be knocking on your door. 

Blair's government is planning to introduce
yet another unnecessary, unworkable law which gives the police even more unprecedented
powers to enter our homes. 

In the Criminal Justice Bill scheduled to
be discussed in April 2007 the Home Office plans to criminalise the possession
of images which are regarded as being ‘abhorrent’.

It wants to legislate that possession of
images it says are “pornographic” and which it says depict a loosely
defined “violence” carry a sentence of up to three years in prison. 

This is regardless of how the images are
created – they could be theatrical, professionally photo-shopped, simulated by
stunt people or simply shots taken out of context. That will not matter – what
they are criminalising is a depiction rather than an action.

Indeed the main proponent of the proposals
- Martin Salter MP – says it is right that juries define the terms, regardless
of how many innocent people have their lives ruined in the process. 

Hence the main test of the law will not be
any particular act that someone has committed, or criminal intent, just whether
a jury believes she or he owns images which are pornographic and which are
“abhorrent”.

While supporters of the Bill pretend these
plans are simply an attempt to close a loophole, their argument ignores the
fact that the Obscene Publications Act is based on a test of depravity and
corruption, a much higher bar than set out in the new plans. 

It also ignores the fact that the new law
would make it a criminal offence to look at something it is legal to do: e.g.
roleplay.  This would potentially make Acting and Dance schools places of depravity, and therefore places of criminal activity.

And – as Rabinder Singh QC points out – it would be almost
impossible for people to know whether they have broken the law – until they're
found guilty in court.

A
Thought Crime.
 

This is an issue of censorship as well as
individual liberty.

Individuals and activist organisations
created backlash
to oppose the proposals.

Petition your MP and Visit the Backlash
website to see how you can oppose this new legislation.

Many in the media, among civil rights
groups, the judiciary, the police and even in parliament oppose the plans. 

Whilst I completely agree that we must
protect the most vulnerable in our society, the Obscene Publications Act
already serves to do that. 

The risk with this new draconian law will
be that once passed, using the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act, a
Minister can change its terms of reference using a Statutory Instrument to
widen the coverage of what is deemed to be ‘abhorrent’, to include virtually
anything.

Then we really will be into the realms of
George Orwell’s Thought Police.

 

 

This morning I spotted 2 articles in the
press that demonstrate that the introduction of both the ID Cards and the
Bio-Passport will go no way to protect us. 

Article
1
shows how the card readers can be hacked into, and if the guys at
Cambridge labs can
do it, so can determined hackers, so your ID card details will never be safe.

unless 

Article 2
shows how some people are thinking about how they want to self protect their
data from hackers in a fairly simplistic way.

Neither of these articles are condoned, but
unfortunately they still do not protect you the user from the Government
collecting all this information about you in the first place.

 

 

In a free
society, the rights and laws protect the individual from the government.

In a
dictatorship, the rights and laws protect the government from the people.

 

In 1940 this country stood alone against an
evil totalitarian regime that had spread across
Europe. 

The UK Government at the time along with
the opposition were weak and feeble, and tried to appease the malevolence of
the Third Reich, that ultimately lead to a war that killed millions. 

The House of Commons collectively had
decided that peaceful acceptance of the subjugation of
Europe, and that to cow-tow to
the criminal actions of Hitler was the right thing to do, because to do nothing
was an easier option. 

All except 1 man, who stood up and led the
fight for the freedoms and rights that we have all enjoyed and unfortunately
taken for granted since the end of the war.

Today, it is our OWN government who are
devising ways to subjugate the population of this country, and we are seeing a
weakness in our MP’s again, who are letting our leaders take our nation down a
road that the population does not want to travel. 

WHERE IS THE OPPOSITION in the
Commons.  On our behalf you are supposed
to oppose the laws that are being devised in our name, which are being used to
turn us all into suspects. You are supposed to protect our individual rights
and collective freedoms.

Where is the Press.  The Press who have always been the champions
of our freedoms and rights, why are you so silent now. 

One of the reasons that we write, read and
teach history is so that, as people, both Government and Citizen we don’t make
the same mistakes twice.  We know what happened in Hitler’s
Germany,
Stalin’s
Russia and the Soviet Bloc. Please don’t let it happen here.

MP’s, you have already signed away most of
the checks and balances required of a democracy. 

Where are the MP’s that are supposed to act
on behalf of the people, for the people. Why wont you stand up.

MP’s, why have you given my rights away,
why are you letting more of my rights disappear every day. 

And when will you realise that you are also
signing away your own rights. With only a few more bits of legislation of the
kind passed since 9/11, this government wont require MP’s any more, because its
already given most of your powers to Ministers.

When you are sitting in the internment
camps along with the others that Sir Ian Blair is thinking of rounding up, its
going to be too late.  For all of us.

 

 

 

In a free
society, the rights and laws protect the individual from the government.

In a
dictatorship, the rights and laws protect the government from the people.

 

In 1940 this country stood alone against an
evil totalitarian regime that had spread across
Europe. 

The UK Government at the time along with
the opposition were weak and feeble, and tried to appease the malevolence of
the Third Reich, that ultimately lead to a war that killed millions. 

The House of Commons collectively had
decided that peaceful acceptance of the subjugation of
Europe, and that to cow-tow to
the criminal actions of Hitler was the right thing to do, because to do nothing
was an easier option. 

All except 1 man, who stood up and led the
fight for the freedoms and rights that we have all enjoyed and unfortunately
taken for granted since the end of the war.

Today, it is our OWN government who are
devising ways to subjugate the population of this country, and we are seeing a
weakness in our MP’s again, who are letting our leaders take our nation down a
road that the population does not want to travel. 

WHERE IS THE OPPOSITION in the
Commons.  On our behalf you are supposed
to oppose the laws that are being devised in our name, which are being used to
turn us all into suspects. You are supposed to protect our individual rights
and collective freedoms.

Where is the Press.  The Press who have always been the champions
of our freedoms and rights, why are you so silent now. 

One of the reasons that we write, read and
teach history is so that, as people, both Government and Citizen we don’t make
the same mistakes twice.  We know what happened in Hitler’s
Germany,
Stalin’s
Russia and the Soviet Bloc. Please don’t let it happen here.

MP’s, you have already signed away most of
the checks and balances required of a democracy. 

Where are the MP’s that are supposed to act
on behalf of the people, for the people. Why wont you stand up.

MP’s, why have you given my rights away,
why are you letting more of my rights disappear every day. 

And when will you realise that you are also
signing away your own rights. With only a few more bits of legislation of the
kind passed since 9/11, this government wont require MP’s any more, because its
already given most of your powers to Ministers.

When you are sitting in the internment
camps along with the others that Sir Ian Blair is thinking of rounding up, its
going to be too late.  For all of us.

 

 

 

Do you remember seeing the bit in George
Orwell’s film ‘1984’ where they pan across desk after desk in the Records
Department at the Ministry of Truth, where the functionaries doctor historical
records in order to comply with the Party's version of the past, and every desk
looks exactly the same, the stapler, the desk lamp, the official stamp, the
pens etc are all in exactly the same place on every desk ….. then read this.

Do we have so many civil servants now that
the Nanny State have to find them absolutely stupid things to do at our expense ?.