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November 17, 2004
Nothing to fear...
... but fear itself.The key issue for the next election will be fear.
Your fear
It won't be presented as such, with the emphasis being placed on security, but fear will be the key.
If you don't believe this, check out these links:
Blunkett explains your terror nightmares - be very afraid
Spyblog - BBC Radio 4 Today programme interview with Home Secretary
For those who abhor Real Player, an MP3 version of the interview can be downloaded here. Be warned, it's an 11Mb MP3 file, but worth listening to just to hear Blunkett's almost incomprehensible attempt to couch draconian restrictions on civil liberties in reasonable terms.
And look at just a couple of items of legislation coming up:
Civil Contingencies Bill - A masterful piece of legislation that allows for a Secretary of State to declare a state of emergency without consultation with, or reference to, the Privy Council or the Head of State. Once the Civil Contingencies card has been played, then the Terrorism Act 2000 comes into play, and there are a number of people held indefinitely in prison without charge who could tell what an affront to civil liberties that Act is.
Identity Cards - And much as Blunkett would like you to think of them as a sort of super Driving Licence style card, but for everybody, they aren't. ID cards pose an even greater threat to your freedoms than you could possibly believe. But you'll want one, because it will save you from identity theft. There again, so would simply shredding documents with identify information in them, exercising caution when shopping on line and being wary of cold callers. All of which carry a far lower cost than the introduction of ID cards.
The key phrase for the Government is pre-emption.
They're sensible, pre-emptive measures. Pre-emptive in the sense that we live now in a rapidly changing world, where people's fears are greater, not just in terms of terrorism, but fear in their own neighbourhood and community, and we've been able to establish stability and security in terms of the economy, and people's economic family life, we need to be able to do that in their immediate environment, and internationally, and in dealing with terrorism.
Which is an impressive pile of steaming bullshit from our Home Secretary. If we feel less secure in our neighbourhoods, it's because of direct experiences, because of failure by Government to act in our interests.
And notice the attempt to link the handling of our security to Labour's handling of the economy? Unfortunately, Blunkett does not poses an equivalent of Brown's prudence.
Now Blunkett justifies measures already introduced, claiming that by their use the security services have pre-empted and prevented terror attacks in Britain, thus making us safer.
So why introduce further measures?
Blunkett would respond that the risk is still out there and greater than ever. Which is debatable. And any increase in risk is due almost entirely to the actions of Tony Blair in entangling us in Iraq.
The truly frightening aspect of all this is what the interview reveals about the thought processes of the Home Secretary and, by implication, the Government. Listen to the interview, read the transcript and then consider whether or not you really want these people controlling your life. That's right, not making you safer or more secure, but instead controlling you life through the draconian destruction of your personal freedoms and civil liberties.
(Thanks to The Honourable Fiend for link to transcript)
--------Posted by Clive on November 17, 2004 10:28 AM in the category Old Stuff