RESPONDING immediately to Tory pressure, Prime Minister Blair yesterday launched his programme of draconian attacks on basic rights and liberties, for a reign of terror against Muslims and socialists who oppose imperialism.
He said that the ‘Home Secretary today publishes new grounds for deportation and exclusion. These will include fostering hatred, advocating violence to further a person’s beliefs or justifying or validating such violence.’ He announced: ‘The rules of the game are changing’. All those who speak up for the Iraqi and Palestinian revolutions can be deported or excluded. Those who support imperialist violence in Iraq are heroes.
Since these rules will be ‘tested in the courts . . . Should legal obstacles arise, we will legislate further, including, if necessary amending the Human Rights Act, in respect of the interpretation of the ECHR.’
Under Blair, Britain is to defy the European Court of Human Rights in order to be able to deport large numbers of Muslims.
‘Once the new grounds take effect, there will be a list drawn up of specific extremist websites, book shops, centres, networks and particular organisations of concern. Active engagement with any of these will be a trigger for the Home Secretary to consider the deportation of any foreign national.’ Foreign nationals are to be terrorised against taking part in any political action that the state does not approve of, and websites and bookshops are to be policed and/or shut down for opposing Blair’s foreign policy.
Blair also revealed that Police Commissioner Blair who had demanded legislation, making ‘glorifying terrorism an offence’, in the morning, had got his way by midday.
Blair said: ‘There will be new anti-terrorism legislation in the Autumn. This will include an offence of condoning or glorifying terrorism. The sort of remarks made in recent days should be covered by such laws. But this will also be applied to justifying or glorifying terrorism anywhere, not just in the UK.’
Clearly MP Galloway, and even Mayor of London Livingstone, are heading for prison. One ‘glorifies’ the Iraqi insurgency and the other, ‘Palestinian terrorism’.
Blair continued: ‘Anyone who has participated in terrorism or has anything to do with it anywhere will automatically be refused asylum.’ This will put an end to the period where Islamic terrorists were welcome in Britain, as long as they opposed Saddam Hussein, Colonel Gadaffi and the Algerian government.
Further: ‘We will also examine whether the necessary procedure can be brought about to give us a way of meeting the police and security service request that detention pre-charge of terrorist suspects be significantly extended.’ The police are to get their 90 days for interrogating suspects without having to charge them. In fact, the police are to get anything at all that they want, under the Blair regime.
There are to be special judges and special courts. One of their duties will be ‘to order closure of a place of worship which is used as a centre for fomenting extremism. . .’ Mosques are to be targeted by MI5.
He added that the necessary legislation for these measures was to be rushed through, saying: ‘If legislation can be made ready in time and the right consensus is achieved, we are ready to recall Parliament in September. . .’
In order to occupy Iraq and dominate the Middle East the British ruling class is trying to put the British people in chains.
These chains must be broken, to force the imperialists to withdraw their troops from Iraq and to defend basic democratic rights in Britain.
The trade unions must tell Blair that enough is enough. They must take action to bring the Blair government down and bring in a workers’ government that will withdraw the troops from Iraq and bring in socialism in Britain.
This is the only way to defeat the imperialist onslaught on Iraq and preserve the basic rights of the British people.
