New Labour wants to extend anti-terrorism legislation until every brown person in the country is locked up until proven innocentDon't, whatever you do, be conned into thinking that that is hyperbole or exaggeration of what is, in actuality a very bad piece of legislation.... oh no!
Let's be honest, when we start to see this argument reduced to the lowest common denominator of identity politics it falls flat on its face. Sunny, is trying to argue from a failing premise at the start, and he should try harder. Yes, 42 days is bad and wrong. However, is it an excuse to lock "every brown person in the country" up? No.
It's legislation that could lock anyone up for 42 days on the Home Secretary's say so. If I may be blunt. Fuck what colour your skin is, this about much more than some politically determined special interest group. Playing identity politics with a law that has far wider implications for civil liberties is to miss the point of those liberties entirely.
7 comments:
Spot on Dizzy.
A 'Liberty' agenda sounds a bit nebulous. Try 'state power' politics and people soon enough get the hang.
I used to play a thought game with people who advocated profiling of airline passengers - which invariably tended to target people of darker tones.
A person, middle class - born in Britain - then spent a lot of time travelling around the Middle East - never spent more than a year in any one place - visited places such as Saudi, Pakistan, Libya etc.
Should he be double checked?
Oh yes they'd cry with enthusiasm.
And I'd reply, somewhat smuggly that I had just described myself - for that is my youth as I travelled with my father, who happened to be an air conditioning architect.
So - back on topic, I agree with Dizzy that this is a law designed to lock anyone up.
Still, look on the bright side, I'll earn £3k per day for the extra 2 weeks I am in the police cell. Which makes it alright then.
I just signed the abandon lisbon treaty
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Abandon-Lisbon/
So now the State has my name and address. I await the knock in the middle of the night should they give in and have a referendum. I can be locked up without charge while they hold the referendum, along with all the others who signed.
That Mugabe can teach us a thing or two-eh?
I commented the other day on a Guardian post, someone whining about refugees with good degrees from universities in their own nations not being able to get work related to those degrees in England.
Sme point as you make really, why try to make this a race issue. English people with good degrees (my daughter for one) cannot get work related to their qualification.
I could argue that if that piece of legislation has some support, it is because most of those suporters think that it will only apply to brown types.
I think it plays with identity politics.
i cant help but wonder if the 42 day stuff is somehow linked to the Lisbon treaty - which was also rammed through parliament at breathtaking speed...
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