'Snooper's Charter' Will Be Revived in wake of Leigh Rigby murder.
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| Drummer Leigh Rigby |
The
horrible murder of Drummer Leigh Rigby has quite rightly provoked
outrage and disgust across the country. Having said that however, it
is difficult to understand the motivation for the hysterical media
coverage, spearheaded by Sky News and BBC News 24, which has been a
constant feature of their programmes over the past week. It is not as
if there has been no other deaths of British soldiers over the past
decades upon which the reporters could have lavished such hyperbole
and repetitive rhetoric.
The
effects of an IED in Hellmand are equally if not more traumatic on
the human body than are knives in Woolwich, but the media chose only
to report the lurid details of the killing and to publish photographs
of the alleged attackers, video of conversations they had with
passers by and the video with sound track of the eight shots fired by
police to end the incident. The following hours and days have been
filled with numerous interviews with “witnesses”, contributions
from various experts on “terrorism” and the usual meaningless
rhetoric from politicians lining up to make cheap points and provoke
reaction with practically every other word uttered being either
“Islamist” or “Muslim” or “Jihadist” or “terrorist”
or some other emotionally charged phrase.
The
effect of course was predictable. The EDF on the streets, arrests of
demonstrators, racist postings on Twitter and numerous other social
media outlets, and counter demonstrations on the streets of towns
around the country. (Even at the height of the “troubles” and the
IRA attacks in London, Manchester and other cities, together with the
associated loss of life, both civilian and military, can anyone
recall such intense media coverage of terrorist actions.)
All
this against a background of hundreds, perhaps even thousands of
people going to Artillery Road, Woolwich to leave flowers and
tributes as a mark of respect, which is of course commendable but, I
wonder, how many people would have been moved to make the visit had
it not been for the overwhelming media coverage.
In
the wake of the outrage and the public reaction to it, politicians
now move to implement some rather vague measures under the general
description of “security”.
Theresa
May has plans for a “fresh crackdown on extremists groups”, David
Cameron announces the launch of a “Task Force” to tackle
extremism and radicalisation” and as Medi's morning memo reports
the Mail on Sunday vows, “I'll gag the hate clerics”. This and
more in the media over the last few days, all very inspiring blood
curdling stuff, but is it real? The empty rhetoric of Downing Street
stoking public perceptions and ensuring that the threat of terrorism
is maintained as justification for further erosions of public
liberty.
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| Home Secretary Theresa May. |
Something
that is very real and very sinister, is the plan by Theresa May to
revive the so called “Snoopers Charter” and slip it in under
cover of the general public outrage, rather like the use of the
Reichstag fire in February 1933, to implement the Reichstag Fire
Decree” and in March of the same year, the “Enabling Act”.
The
media and the politicians have gone to great lengths in a rather vain
attempt to convince us all that this murder
in Woolwich, and other's elsewhere, are not related to government
foreign policy. This proposition is, of course is utter nonsense and
defies all logic. The
comments proposing a “new task force” or gagging hate clerics
rather suggests the opposite.
The
danger that we must be aware of and vigorously resist, is the use
by government and its agencies of some event to further restrict or
remove entirely,
the civil liberties of
people, under the guise of counter terrorism measures in furtherance
of the so called “War on terror”.
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