Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Anti-Terror Bill
Blair in bother!
The Blair government has suffered another torrid night in attempts to get it's new anti-terror legislation through the House of Lords, their Lordships have just about rewritten Charles Clark's Bill and made a firm stand in favour of retaining "habeous corpus", and protecting the civil rights of all of us.
This legislation is pooorly thought out, and poorly written, it was drafted in haste because the current legislation expires at the end of this week. Parliament needs to decide whether to extend the current legislation by a further nine months (despite it contravening the European Convention on Human Rights) or to accept the new legislation with an inbuilt "sunset clause".
These are the only real choices available if we would like to see parliament thoroughly examine, consider, and debate new anti-terror laws which manage to protect our centuries old rights and liberties.
If we are accused of a crime we expect our accusers to present a case outlining the alleged breach of law. We can further expect to be able to defend ourselves in a court of law. If we are "suspected" of planning a crime, then surely the current laws against conspiracy ought to be strong enough to gain a conviction.
If the "evidence" of those who "suspect" is that presented by the Security Services, then there is a grave risk that people will be subjected to "control orders" quite wrongfully. It is only a short step to take before political dissidents, environmental campaigners, animal rights activists etc., find themselves "suspected" of planning a crime and subjected to Clark's "control orders".
Daily Telegraph article - click here
BBC News - click here
_________________________________________________________________
The Blair government has suffered another torrid night in attempts to get it's new anti-terror legislation through the House of Lords, their Lordships have just about rewritten Charles Clark's Bill and made a firm stand in favour of retaining "habeous corpus", and protecting the civil rights of all of us.
This legislation is pooorly thought out, and poorly written, it was drafted in haste because the current legislation expires at the end of this week. Parliament needs to decide whether to extend the current legislation by a further nine months (despite it contravening the European Convention on Human Rights) or to accept the new legislation with an inbuilt "sunset clause".
These are the only real choices available if we would like to see parliament thoroughly examine, consider, and debate new anti-terror laws which manage to protect our centuries old rights and liberties.
If we are accused of a crime we expect our accusers to present a case outlining the alleged breach of law. We can further expect to be able to defend ourselves in a court of law. If we are "suspected" of planning a crime, then surely the current laws against conspiracy ought to be strong enough to gain a conviction.
If the "evidence" of those who "suspect" is that presented by the Security Services, then there is a grave risk that people will be subjected to "control orders" quite wrongfully. It is only a short step to take before political dissidents, environmental campaigners, animal rights activists etc., find themselves "suspected" of planning a crime and subjected to Clark's "control orders".
Daily Telegraph article - click here
BBC News - click here
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