I’ve been trying to figure out why a calm, level-headed commentator on Palestine/Israel affairs like Asa Winstanley of the website Electronic Intifada should have been the victim of a dawn raid by the police and having his electronic devices taken into custody, so to speak—whilst he wasn’t arrested. Well, it’s not hard to figure out why—it’s both an intimidatory and an intelligence gathering exercise. No doubt Asa will get his gear back, although if it was me I wouldn’t use it—it’ll be bugged if it wasn’t before. All this under the auspices of the 2006 Terrorism Act. I thought I would look up the debate on the then Terrorism Bill which took place in November, 2005. Thankfully I just happen to possess a hard copy of the Hansard volume covering said debate. On the 9th November 2005 the diminutive but ever smiley ultra-Blairite minister Hazel Blears led off addressing the issue of what would constitute encouragement of terrorism, which was to be outlawed in the bill. Said encouragement might take two forms—deliberate incitement with knowing intent, or ‘reckless’ comment which could encourage some twerp into a terrorist act. Deliberate, knowing incitement was not contentious. What was was the test of ‘recklessness.’ It seems that in this context the meaning is subjective. Blears was somewhat evasive, as if it would be perfectly obvious what was meant. Bob Marshall-Andrews, ever the lawyer wanted to amend the bill’s wording to include words to the effect that somebody’s statement would have to lead a ‘reasonable person’ to commit terrorist acts, as opposed to somebody already disposed to such an act. Predictably that didn’t go anywhere, the government’s looser interpretation went through. We therefore have a liberally generous degree of subjectivity in what the law prohibits in free speech. Hence the police can without challenge wade into somebody’s house at 5.40am and sequester property or person. I’m sure Hazel will have lost no sleep over this at all.
Having retrieved this rather heavy volume of Hansard from my library (which contains 20 years’ worth), I was pleased to see I made a speech on the 23rd November on climate change, and even moved a bill. So I was there.
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