big-ears' prevention of terrorism bill is the most disgusting piece of legislation dreamed up by a british politician in a very, very long time.



the provisions of the bill allow the home secretary to make a control order restricting the activities of any person whom he, the home secretary, has 'reasonable grounds' for believing 'is or has been involved in terrorism-related activity'.



control orders may restrict movement, use of certain technologies, meeting with certain persons and even house arrest.



failure to comply with a control order can result in imprisonment.



so, just like the appalling 'asbo', these control orders are imposed without evidence being presented to a court, but result in imprisonment if the controlled person fails to comply. further, the controlled person is not allowed to know the 'evidence' on which the home secretary's decision is made and it therefore, of course, unable to show whether he / she has, for example, an alibi or some other defence against the charges.



this flies in the face of every premise of british law. control orders can be imposed by an individual with no reference to due process in the courts, no opportunity for the controlled person to refute the charges and little or no possibility that the order will ever be rescinded, since there is no appeal so, in the all-too-frequent cases of incorrect identification, some poor bastard who has had nothing whatsoever to do with any of the supposed 'crimes' he's been virtually imprisoned for, will be controlled and never, ever be freed of the suspicion which has been placed upon him by this odious legislation - in fact, he may never be freed from house arrest - ever - because the 'evidence' cannot be refuted - ever.



big-ears is a fascist. this is fascist legislation. it will be abused, despite the home secretary's 'promise' that it will be used as a last resort, and it will be abused big-time should we ever have, gods forbid, a government which is even more over-arching, more over-wheening than the control freaks who currently 'govern' this country.



big-ears, bliar, brown, strawman, goon and all the rest of them have forgotten that they are our employees. they govern by consent. this kind of legislation provides for them to govern by diktat.



gods help us all if this vile legislation is enacted, for we'll be a very long way down the road to being a completely fascist state - and this from a political party that used to be vaguely socialist.

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since this legislation is obviously inspired by horrendous legislation in the u.s.a., i wonder how long it will be before we have the kind of scandal that has ruined american democracy, such as it was, where government supporters prevent a fair and proper election from taking place?

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update :



in an interview with the guardian, big-ears said, "al-qaida's ambition is not to get us out of iraq or wherever, it is about seeking to destroy the fundamental nature of our society ... freedom of expression and democracy, the rule of law, religious tolerance, the rights of women."



isn't that just what the thick bastard is doing with his ill-conceived legislation?