Thought Crimes.
Oh, how I loathe the government. These people are continually trying to mess with our heads. You can now be visited by the police for expressing an opinion-a catholic couple were recently warned that that their homophobic letters to the council could land them a jail sentence of up to seven years. I disagree with their beliefs and would happily hurl insults at them if I came across them in the street, but you can't jail someone for what they think. Its ludicrous.
We've had the racial and religious hatred law, where the government wanted to criminalise abusive or insulting criticisms of religion. They then moderated this by saying that a religion could be criticized as long as its believers weren't insulted, prompting Rowan Atkinson to hilariously point out that "there is no point making fun of a belief if nobody believes it." Any criticism of religion is insulting to its believers. This law would have essentially outlawed criticizing, for instance, the misogynistic and homophobic aspects of Islam. I say Islam in particular because, as the above demonstrates, the extreme views of Christianity will obviously not be afforded such protection.
We also had glorifying terrorism, which had to be dropped when the House of Lords pointed out that it was impossible to agree on what "glorifying" actually meant. You can't make laws regulating freedom of speech, our language is too versatile and complex. Any law relating to what people say or think is open to misinterpretation and therefore abuse.The Lords, though it pains me to say it, have constantly stopped this government from eroding our liberties since 9/11. For a bunch of people who inherited their power they seem to behave in a strangely level headed and compassionate way. Which is probably why Blair is so dead set on reforming them out of existence.
I've said it once and I'll say it again: democracy doesn't work.
We've had the racial and religious hatred law, where the government wanted to criminalise abusive or insulting criticisms of religion. They then moderated this by saying that a religion could be criticized as long as its believers weren't insulted, prompting Rowan Atkinson to hilariously point out that "there is no point making fun of a belief if nobody believes it." Any criticism of religion is insulting to its believers. This law would have essentially outlawed criticizing, for instance, the misogynistic and homophobic aspects of Islam. I say Islam in particular because, as the above demonstrates, the extreme views of Christianity will obviously not be afforded such protection.
We also had glorifying terrorism, which had to be dropped when the House of Lords pointed out that it was impossible to agree on what "glorifying" actually meant. You can't make laws regulating freedom of speech, our language is too versatile and complex. Any law relating to what people say or think is open to misinterpretation and therefore abuse.The Lords, though it pains me to say it, have constantly stopped this government from eroding our liberties since 9/11. For a bunch of people who inherited their power they seem to behave in a strangely level headed and compassionate way. Which is probably why Blair is so dead set on reforming them out of existence.
I've said it once and I'll say it again: democracy doesn't work.
posted by Ben at 6:01 pm
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