Thought police muscle up in Britain | The Australian
The Government is pushing ahead with legislation that will criminalise politically incorrect jokes, with a maximum punishment of up to seven years’ prison.
Dipshit Jack StrawThe House of Lords tried to insert a free-speech amendment, but Justice Secretary Jack Straw knocked it out. It was Straw who previously called for a redefinition of Englishness and suggested the “global baggage of empire” was linked to soccer violence by “racist and xenophobic white males”. He claimed the English “propensity for violence” was used to subjugate Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and that the English as a race were “potentially very aggressive”.
In the past 10 years I have collected reports of many instances of draconian punishments, including the arrest and criminal prosecution of children, for thought-crimes and offences against political correctness.
Countryside Restoration Trust chairman and columnist Robin Page said at a rally against the Government’s anti-hunting laws in Gloucestershire in 2002: “If you are a black vegetarian Muslim asylum-seeking one-legged lesbian lorry driver, I want the same rights as you.” Page was arrested, and after four months he received a letter saying no charges would be pressed, but that: “If further evidence comes to our attention whereby your involvement is implicated, we will seek to initiate proceedings.” It took him five years to clear his name.
Page was at least an adult. In September 2006, a 14-year-old schoolgirl, Codie Stott, asked a teacher if she could sit with another group to do a science project as all the girls with her spoke only Urdu. The teacher’s first response, according to Stott, was to scream at her: “It’s racist, you’re going to get done by the police!” Upset and terrified, the schoolgirl went outside to calm down. The teacher called the police and a few days later, presumably after officialdom had thought the matter over, she was arrested and taken to a police station, where she was fingerprinted and photographed. According to her mother, she was placed in a bare cell for 3 1/2 hours. She was questioned on suspicion of committing a racial public order offence and then released without charge. The school was said to be investigating what further action to take, not against the teacher, but against Stott. Headmaster Anthony Edkins reportedly said: “An allegation of a serious nature was made concerning a racially motivated remark. We aim to ensure a caring and tolerant attitude towards pupils of all ethnic backgrounds and will not stand for racism in any form.”
Found by Mad Dog Mike.
Clearly the British Labour Party are seeking electoral defeat.
And so the saga continues, the British Empire turns more and more into the British Tardpire.
“It was Straw who … suggested the “global baggage of empire” was linked to soccer violence by “racist and xenophobic white males”. He claimed the English “propensity for violence” was used to subjugate Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and that the English as a race were “potentially very aggressive”.
He’s probably right. But that does not mean we need namby-pamby busy bodies like Justice Straw trying to change human nature into something it is not.
Lets face it, getting rid of politically correct jokes in Britain, would outlaw Monty Python, Benny Hill, … well come to think of it all British humor from Tristram Shandy to The IT Crowd would have be illegal.
Remember, remember the 5th of November, the gun powder treason and plot. I know of no reason why the gun powder treason should ever be forgot.
The British deserve this treatment. They have allowed it.
Screw them.
its just the start – last week they arrested over 100 alleged climate protesters THE NIGHT BEFORE they were to protest – and the media reported it as though it was normal to be arrested for PLANNING to go to a demo – we are most definitely living with thought police and it terrifies me to think just where “New” labour policies are taking this country but more so just how accepting the nation is of the situation
[Duplicate comment deleted. Please don’t double post! – ed.]
What is the only way that we would be able to change this? You’d have to talk about things such as revolution, which involves overthrowing the government. That would therefore be seen as inciting terrorism and so you’d be arrested for that. This is a way to ensure that the powers can secure their place in the power structure, and that anyone who apposes them will be arrested. Like America, the British have a system made up of 2 parties who are both different shades of the same shit.
For Jack Straw and Headmaster Anthony Edkins, it’s all yours. Normally only commenters receive the coveted BRDDA, but an exception has been made in your egregious case.
Enough said.
YEA! The BubbaRayDipDork Award!
Long time, no see…
If you cannot talk about race, how can you ever improve race relations?
Eric Holder, with his “We are a nation of cowards” spoke on this very issue.
I happen to agree with what he says. Although we need to be sensitive, trying to sweep racial issues under the rug isn’t resolving anything or doing anyone any favors.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=3RtzGraUV9c
Oh, and ignore the idiot’s comments beside the video. The video is good, the poster is a moron.
I don’t care if the details of this issue HAVE BEEN correctly reported: I don’t believe it.
Not even public officials can be this stupid.
Let me correct that post #12 as I have had the pleasure of reading Alfie at #11. I retract my common sense interaction with reality.
Certainly there are idiots in this world, and enough of them certainly elected similar idiot to “decide” things for themselves.
Alfie==who beside the flaming Perez Hilton said anything against Ms. Ca? Name and link?
The photo for this topic is worth 3 years for being politically incorrect, I love it.
That rushing sound you heard was every comedian booked into this summer’s Edinburgh Festival hurrying home to rewrite their material.
Bobbo, I’d like to agree with you but I think the UK signed on to the UN’s recent decision to make criticizing religion (especially Islam!) hate speech.
I had the misfortune to live in the UK for a few years and I sincerely believe they have mistaken Orwell’s novel for an instruction manual.
I think Miss CA could have answered the question better. I don’t dispute her right to her beliefs but calling it “opposite marriage” made her sound dumb. Shoe shoulda said something about keeping tradition or such. That said I do think it was a loaded question and probably the most difficult to answer with out offending someone.
Alfie==I guess I flunk you test as I find your link totally unsupporting of the point you are ineptly making. I guess the test proves you are very consistently inept?
As to Ms Ca. statement, she said to the best of my memory, something like: “I’m proud to live in a country where you have a choice to marry who you want==” now, she was WRONG on that statement, just a few years premature, but I thought she was evidencing an openness that people should be allowed to freely choose. Nough said. After that, I really don’t care what her personal decision would be. So==I don’t know what personal prejudice of yours you wish to paint me with.
I also don’t plumb the blogosphere looking for certain opinions. Just in my normal course of affairs, I haven’t heard a single statement against Ms Ca. except for Perez the judge. Perez is the person that comes off looking bad on this kerfuffle==Perez and of course YOU when you wingnut blather “It was likened to hate speech by many…” “ONE” is not many except in your imaginary world where there is a “liberal” underneath every bed.
Now, I continued to give you more credit than you deserve. I assumed you could find at least one person you could label as idiotic as yourself, and you failed. Pure imagination/hyperbole on your part. Pure fiction. Typical Wingnut. And yet there is a whole party made of your ilk.
Because we have the Wingnut Party in the USA, I must accede to Nimby’s point that indeed this level of lunacy could be the rule in the UK. Sad day for them, sad day for the USA when the Wingnuts collect enough damaged individuals to win the amnesia of the voting electorate again in the future.
The politics of stupidity.
#13 Alfred1 said: “…as went Britain, so goes the USA…”
Unlike the British, we have a written Constitution that prohibits these kinds of laws. Judges look at the original intent of the founding fathers to interpret the Constitution. No one would make the mistake that “Congress shall make no law…” allows Congress to pass laws abridging freedom of speech.
#13 bobbo
A news report this week said that other judges also said things as well but I can’t find a reference for them.
Besides, Perez is sad little man (I use the term loosely here) for lambasting someone just for their opinion. Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one and I’m sure Perez has seen his fair share of the later.
God. Liberals are destroying what once was a great country. Sad.
Lets get something straight. When it comes to calling for censorship, both the left and the right are guilty!
The left tends to be sensitive to racial content, the right seems to be most sensitive to sexual content. Lists of “banned books” are filled with both. Hate speech goes both directions too.
If you begin down the road of jailing for ideas, nobody is safe!
#26–Alfie==Yes, your link works, I saw the picture. That picture doesn’t support in any way the point you were providing support for. Again, while just now I see “test” was a reference to your ability to just post the picture instead of the link, you FAIL the test of relevancy none the less.
Now Diesel says some comments have been made criticizing Ms Ca. I don’t doubt it at all. EVERY opinion is on the net. That doesn’t mean extremists can get sloppy and just assume “some” comments can be turned into “many.” Besides, always interested in what kooky sites extremists get their morning jerk off from.
Whats interesting in this issue, as in so many others, is that the extremists not only want to apply their own prejudices, they are real stupid about understanding what was said as well. Ms Ca. is a very liberal Christian and her statement was so poorly worded, we don’t actually know what she thinks.
Don’t want anything else from Bible Thumping Christians in Bikinis.
It’s amazing to me that the conservative right will blame this on the liberal left and then condemn the ACLU as a lefty liberal organization in the same breath. Which is it? Doesn’t your head hurt from all the logical inconsistencies you need to keep in their?
English as a race?
This guy has lost it.
There is only one race across the globe. Human.
And the vast majority of people in the UK are bloody germans and french. The royals are krauts and have been since hanover.
Cursor_
#33 bobbo
“Don’t want anything else from Bible Thumping Christians in Bikinis.”
Really? Did you see her in the bikini?
😉
This is what happens when a country confiscates all of the people’s firearms…. GET IT, MORONS???
#31 “Fascists don’t necessarily threaten with jail…rather they utilize ridicule, slander…to bully folks into parroting their PC premises…”
See we agree. Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Bill Oreilley, and all the rest of the right wing blow hards are by this definition Fascists as well.
Pot to Kettle, “You are black!”
“Fascists don’t necessarily threaten with jail…rather they utilize ridicule, slander…to bully folks into parroting their PC premises…”
So now fascism applies to anyone who mocks or ridicules?
Will you right wing asshats stop appropriating words? I know, I know, it worked for Karl Rove brilliantly. But you’re making yourselves look like morons now. *Everyone* uses ridicule and slander to decry their enemies. Mark fucking Twain used ridicule and slander – you going to argue he’s a fascist? Jonathan Swift? Voltaire? Thomas Paine? Ben Franklin?
#40 Typical right wing response.
When you are losing the debate, try changing the subject.
#37–Alfie==and what does that cover, whether a picture or a link, have to do with supporting the notion that “many” people criticized Ms Ca. for her anti-pc views?
Ha, ha. What a dolt.