the Disillusioned kid: Prevention of Terrorism, my arse!
| Email | Home | Linkage | Profile |

Friday, February 25, 2005

Prevention of Terrorism, my arse!

I'm on a whole host of email lists, among them the Justice Not Vengeance announcements list. Today they sent out an urgent action, from Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC), which some of you might care to participate in. They encourage people to participate in a lobby of MPs against the so-called Prevention of Terrorism Bill. You can do this in person and/or send them a letter. You may not all be able to do the former, but the latter is incredibly easy.

The ever useful Faxyourmp.com is in the process of being updated to allow you to contact not only your MP, but also MEPs and councillors. The new site is available here. Despite this the old site is still available at the old url, so you've got a choice. Simply saunter along to either and follow the instructions. Either write a letter of your own, or use this one (a combination of CAMPACC's suggestion with my own thoughts) as a starting point and adapt, according to your prejudices:
I am writing to express my concern about the so-called Prevention of Terrorism Bill and to urge you to vote against it.

I am deeply concerned that the Bill is being rushed through the House with unseemly haste and without appropriate Parliamentary and public scrutiny.

The Bill proposes to remove the presumption of innocence, which until now has been the core principle of British justice, and vests the power with the Home Secretary to deprive a person of his/her liberty on the basis of suspicion rather than proof.

The Bill proposes closed retrospective judicial reviews where evidence obtained by secret intelligence will be used, possibly even where this has been obtained through torture by third parties. The system of closed sessions will also prevent the accused testing the case against him in any meaningful way.

I fear that the bill if implemented will lead to gross violations of human rights, erosion of civil liberties and miscarriage of justice.

There is no doubt that the threat from terrorism is real. This is hardly a new situation, however. Are we really at a greater threat now than we were at the height of "the Troubles"?

Furthermore, this is the third piece of anti-terrorism legislation in five years. If the previous two are ineffective, why should this one be any different?

Again, I urge you to vote against the Bill and look forward to your
response.
If you want further info on the bill, check out Statewatch.

Make a point of thoroughly proof-reading your letter. I forgot to do this and managed to send of a letter claiming that "this is the third piece of anti-terrorism legislation in three years." Which isn't true. It's the third in five years (the Terrorism Act 2000 and the Anti-Terror, Crime and Security Act 2001 being the other two). Oops. The basic thrust of the argument is unaffected, however.

So... What are you waiting for?
|

Links to this post:

Create a Link

<< Home

Side Projects

Carnival of Anarchy
The Peace Pipe
UK Watch Blog

Acquaintances

Against the Current
Atopian.org
Culture hits and gendered bits
Daniel Randall
In The Water
Mike Wood
On The Barricades
Pizarro's Sword
Space Cat Rocket Ship
Surveillant Assemblage
TashCamUK FotoPage
The Naked Lunch
The Peace Pipe
The World of the Dynamite Lady

Strangers

Anarchoblogs
Antiwar.com Blog
Arte & Lingua
Barker in Valencia
Blairwatch
Bloggerheads
Blood & Treasure
Bombs and Shields
Boomablog
Born at the Crest of the Empire
Chase me ladies...
Chicken Yoghurt
Craig Murray
Dead Men Left
Direland
Disreputable Lazy Aliens
Empire Notes
Europhobia
Friends of Al Jazeera
Global Guerillas
Guerillas in the Midst
I Blame the Patriachy
Informed Comment
Insultadarity
Janine Booth
Lenin's Tomb
Life of Riley Blog
Media Watch Watch
Neil Shakespeare
NO2ID NewsBlog
One Hump or Two?
Otto's Random Thoughts
Perfect.co.uk
Pitch In For Uzbekistan
Registan.net
Run over by the truth
Solidarity With Iraqi Workers
Shut Up You Fat Whiner!
Sudan: Passion of the Present
Talk Politics
The Anthropik Network
The Daily (Maybe)
The Devil's Kitchen
The Disillusioned
The f-word
The Head Heeb
The Killing Train
The Revenge of Winston Smith
The Socialist Unity Blog
The Wicked Truth
Theory of Power
Things I Don't Have Time For
This (Fresh) Gringo
This Is My Truth
Thumping the Tub
Time The Dreaded Enemy
UK Watch Blog
UK Poli Blogs
underbrella
Under The Same Sun
Uzbekistan.neweurasia.net
What Fresh Hell Is This?
Where is Raed? (RIP)
Who Are You to Accuse Me?
Words and Rocks
Zeropointnine
Z-Net Blog

Neighbours

Asbo Community Space
Defy-ID
Eastside Climate Action
Faslane 365
Freecycle
Indymedia
No Borders
Nottingham Student Peace Movement
Refugee Forum
Stop the War
Sumac Centre
The Demo Project

Ivory Towers

Anarchist Studies Network
Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice
Postanarchism Clearinghouse

Miscellania

Anarchist FAQ
Antiwar.com
Chagos Discussion List
Chagos Support Forums
Electronic Intifada
Future of Iraq Portal
Index of Political Blogs
Indymedia UK
Infoshop
Iraq Occupation Focus
Pledgebank
Refuser Solidarity Network
SchNEWS
Socialist Unity Network
The New Standard
UK Chagos Support Association
UK Watch
Weekly Worker
Wikipedia
WriteToThem.com
Z-Net

The Progressive Blog Alliance

Register here to join the PBA.