BARBELITH underground
 

Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.


Underground > Switchboard >

Clarke Bans 'Exaltation of Terrorism'

  
 
Supaglue
09:02 / 16.09.05
Reading the Guardian website this morning. This can't be right can it?

The government's proposed anti-terrorism laws published yesterday are so widely drawn that anyone who "glorifies, exalts or celebrates" any terrorist act committed over the past 20 years could face a sentence of up to five years in prison.
But the small print of the draft terrorism bill published yesterday shows that the home secretary is preparing to go even further and draw up a list of historical terrorist acts which if "glorified" could mean a criminal offence being committed.

Clarke's draft bill proposes new offence of glorification

· Defendants found guilty could face five years in jail
· Liberty warns loose talk will become a criminal act

Alan Travis and Rosie Cowan
Friday September 16, 2005
The Guardian


The government's proposed anti-terrorism laws published yesterday are so widely drawn that anyone who "glorifies, exalts or celebrates" any terrorist act committed over the past 20 years could face a sentence of up to five years in prison.
But the small print of the draft terrorism bill published yesterday shows that the home secretary is preparing to go even further and draw up a list of historical terrorist acts which if "glorified" could mean a criminal offence being committed....


...A Home Office spokeswoman said 9/11 was such an example; it would become a "listed event", the appropriate ban lasting longer than 20 years. However, the 1916 Irish Easter Rising would be exempt.

I knew clarke had set of three draft bills against terrorism, but I totally missed this. Perhaps the governent will manage what Barbelith couldn't and provide a coherent and fair definition of a terrorist. Shyeah right.
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
11:29 / 20.09.05
This seems to be counterproductive on a number of levels. The three months will probably get watered down for cross-party support, but how in the blue hell do you successfully prosecute somebody for glorification? What does it even mean? This law will either be unenforcable or insanely draconian.
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
11:40 / 20.09.05
*consigns T-shirts of Andreas and Ulrike tearfully to the bin*

Hang on... 20 years, you say?

Apart from being unutterably WRONG, this makes no logical sense. If terrorism's such an ABSOLUTE WINNER in the table of unpleasant acts, then how do you judge the value of x when "x years later it'll be okay to say it was cool"?

And, as Haus says, "glorification"'s gonna be a bitch to prove.
 
 
Alex's Grandma
13:51 / 20.09.05
It's getting to the point where it's actually quite easy not to worry about new government legislation, when so much of it seems actively designed to be unworkable.

Not right, but quite easy all the same.

If anybody's got one, what are they planning on doing with their '911 Is A Joke' t-shirt? That as a test case could run for years.
 
 
Phex: Dorset Doom
18:20 / 20.09.05
Also, seeing as this is entirely inspired by the 11/7 attacks/Finsbury Park Mosque/That dude with the hooked hands, is it going to be applied fairly across the board to non-Islamist terrorists? I'm thinking specifically of the IRA here, the big murals of guys in balaclavas holding guns on houses in Ulster (not just Republicans, but Loyalists too) - don't they glorify terrorism? A lot? Yet somehow, especially with Sinn Fein as a feature of Northern Irish politics, I can't see the government cracking down on them as hard as they would on radical Mosques etc.
 
  
Add Your Reply