Britain is no Police state
Official: Obsever leader today
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/leaders/story/0,,2010492,00.html
When a bizarre claim is made often enough, backed up by respectable sources, it enters political debate as a legitimate point of view. For example, the opinion, expressed last week by the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, that Britain is becoming a police state, worthy of comparison with Uganda under Idi Amin, reflects a commonplace line of attack on the government. David Davis, the shadow home affairs spokesman, gave qualified support to Dr Sentamu's view. One senior cleric last week compared recent police raids against terror suspects in Birmingham's Muslim community with the actions of Nazi Germany against the Jews.
There are many reasons to criticise the government over civil liberties: for trying to empower police to detain terror suspects without charge for 90 days; for banning incitement to religious hatred and glorification of terror, which blurred the distinction between nasty words and criminal acts; ID cards, which will create a store of private data to be shared in secret by state bodies.
Governments instinctively value the practical convenience of law enforcement over theoretical freedoms. Democratic institutions should instinctively check that process. So far, with mixed success, that is what Parliament and the judiciary have done.
Hyperbole has its place in rhetoric, raising the spectre of an unthinkable future to criticise the present. But to compare modern Britain with Amin's Uganda or the Third Reich is absurd. It panders to the paranoid, nihilistic attitude that sees all government as a cynical conspiracy. There is a case for defending civil liberties in Britain, but it is discredited, not enhanced, by excessive talk of a 'police state'.
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So that's alright then.
COMMENTS
"There is a case for defending civil liberties in Britain, but it is discredited, not enhanced, by excessive talk of a 'police state'."
Spoken very probably by a middle class, middle aged, white man, who never gets racially profiled, or targeted by the police because of his skin colour or religion, or 7 bullets pumped into his head on the London underground because he looks 'Asian'.
What blind complacency from the observer leader writers, they should read Henry Porter.
February 11, 2007 8:01 AM
http://gizmonaut.net/bits/suspect.html
http://gizmonaut.net/bits/police_state.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/06/accursed_metal_detector/
February 11, 2007 8:25 AM
When the police can arrest you for anything at all, even for saying 'shit' under your breath, and once they've arrested you can forcibly take dna samples and fingerprints which will be held until you die even though you are not convicted of anything, then people who raise their voices to protest about a 'police state' deserve better than a crappy little editorial like this from Tony's friends at the Observer. One or two people say things like 'Idi Amin' or 'Hitler' and the Observer jumps at the chance to pontificate.
February 11, 2007 8:42 AM
And when the police can break into someone's home in the early hours, wearing face masks which muffle their voices so no-one can hear them identify themselves, and wearing gloves which prevent them operating their drawn guns with safety-catch off, so they shoot someone (without even meaning to this time) and then, when it turns out that after a week or so they actually have to release the people they've shot and arrested because Tony hasn't given them their three months yet, they feel so resentful that they plant child porn on a computer they confiscated from the innocent guy they shot in order to try to punish him for making them look bad, and yet no police are disciplined and nothing is done, then people who raise their voices to complain deserve better than this sort of patronising 'shut up, it's not Nazi Germany yet' crap.
February 11, 2007 8:55 AM
The Guardian is a great paper for publishing what is IMO the widest range of challlenging views of any traditional media outlet. However, sometimes it seems to inexplicably become a wet apologist for New Labour, throwing away all pretense of objectivity and mindlessly pushing the party line.
Nihilistic? That's a good word to describe the Blair government, not it's opponents.
February 11, 2007 9:15 AM
When people are imprisoned for 'thought crimes' do not dare to say that we are not a police state.
February 11, 2007 12:32 PM
QUOTE
Britain is no police state
When a bizarre claim is made often enough, backed up by respectable sources, it enters political debate as a legitimate point of view
February 11, 2007 2:41 PM
I am sure the non-Jewish ordinary folk, of Nazi Germany also thought they were not living in a Police State. Till it was too late.
It is the powerless ethnic and social minorities who face the abuse of police and state power first. The middle class, middle aged, white man who writes Observer leader articles should be reminded of the famous quote below by Pastor Niemoller:
"First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me." _ By Pastor Niemoller_
- Posted by madderbat on 11/02/2007.
- madderbat's site
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February 11, 2007 1:50 AM