The 42 Days Bill

I don’t tend to write about Politics in this blog, although it is something that interests me very much (any of my friends could tell you that). However, this story is relevant to this site, and as such it is something I feel should be addressed.

Recently the House of Commons passed the bill to keep “Terror” suspects locked up for 42 days without trial or charges filed against them by a majority of less than 10 (if my memory serves me correctly it was 306 to 315, but I may be wrong). Gordon Brown said it was a pre-emptive policy, as terror cases become more complex and cross international borders, more time is needed to collate important evidence. He continued to say that although this was not needed at present, in the not-to-distant-future it would be so instead of waiting for the situation to arise and attempt to get an emergency bill passed when they develop, he would do it now in our current state of “calm”. The Conservative’s argument was that the bill had so many concessions that it was now unworkable and that it was taking away our basic civil liberties, which is my main point of writing this article.

My first concern is the term “Terror Suspect” and the actions of “Terrorism”. The so-called “War on Terror” is so hard to define, and the very few factors that are obvious tend to be ignored by the media. The War on Terror is in fact the war against Islamic Extremism but the media will never say that for fear of offending the Muslim population. But that never stopped them when Britain’s terror threat came from Northern Ireland did it? A Terrorist is someone who (as the name suggests) causes terror in society to gain political or ideological advancement. But how long will it be before the state decides that OTHER crimes class as Terrorism and start using this new piece of legislation to lock up run of the mill criminals?

Ok, let us imagine a scenario. Football violence increases to the levels it was in the 1980’s, and football firms start fighting more and more. One day a huge fight breaks out and the police move in and arrest everyone in the area, which includes innocent bystanders and people who had to defend themselves from would be aggressors. A self-employed father of five is caught up in the middle of it all, arrested and held in a police cell. As there are so many people to interview, cameras to check and so forth the police decide to hold this man for 42 days. Meanwhile, he loses his livelihood (you cannot just take one and a half months off and expect to still get an income if you own your own business) and has his house repossessed for failure to pay his mortgage. His wife and children have to live in refuge centres as without an income they cannot afford to rent a house. The point is that by allowing the 42 day detention bill to be passed is it will inevitably become common practice for police, driving us more towards the police state we so desperately do not need.

Also, as the current holding period is 28 days (I believe), if you arrested someone and have NO evidence to charge them after an entire month of investigation then maybe they are innocent. To arrest someone for “Terrorist” activities you must have got some intelligence and evidence they are indeed plotting something?? Surely there are better ways? How about house arrest for an extra fortnight after the 28 day period? Electronic tagging even would be a better idea then locking them up. That way you get to keep one or two of your civil liberties but also the police can keep an eye on you whilst they “collate” all the relevant data”.

This bill is another step towards a 1984-esque Orwellian state, and we all must oppose it in any way we can. If we allow this to continue, before we know the powers-that-be will have used this false “War” to convince the entire population individual microchip implants are the best way to keep us “safe”. Think that is a bit far fetched? It is already happening in America, and people are CHOOSING to do this because of the false propaganda the US government pollutes the people with.