Protesters are Criminals

George Monbiot has put his finger on something that has begun to trouble me of late in the way that Britain is governed.
“All politicians who seek to justify repressive legislation claim that they are responding to an unprecedented threat to public order. And all politicians who cite such a threat draft measures in response which can just as easily be used against democratic protest. No act has been passed over the last 20 years with the aim of preventing anti-social behaviour, disorderly conduct, trespass, harrassment and terrorism which has not also been deployed to criminalise a peaceful public engagement in politics. ”
My perspective is that the legislation is often a blunt instrument and tha government assurances that it won't be used to criminalise ordinary citizens and normal situations are not worth a great deal. Hand the executive legislative tools and sooner or later they will use them to stifle dissent. That's how Weimar Germany began to morph into a totalitarian state; it was all for public order or to safeguard ordinary hardworking citizens ... We have to have proper checks and balances. And frankly I do not trust this government or any government with the power they would have if we had compulory biometric ID cards, to take one example from the forthcoming legislative round, or with the sane use of the powers that the forthcoming religious 'tolerance' bill would give. Sleepwalking to a police state, I think we could be; the terrorists win.
George Monbiot � Protesters are Criminals:

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