You know how I like to compile Top Ten Lists. And as I haven't done one for what seems like ... ooh, days, I thought I would solicit your help in compiling the Top Ten Occasions When Terror Legislation Has Been Misused...
I'll get it going with...
10. Having Walter Wolfgang expelled from the Labour Party conference.
9. Freezing Icelandic assets.
8. ...
8) Arresting demonstrators against BAA/BA's hare-brained plan to expand Heathrow airport
ReplyDeleteJean Charles de M...
ReplyDeleteThat guy shot in N London by police (Forest Gate?), for having a beard it seems.
Terrorism Act - Figures released by the Home Office on 5 March 2007 show that 1,126 people were arrested under the Act between 11 September 2001 and 31 December 2000. Of the total 1,166 people arrested under the Act or during related police investigations, only 40 were convicted.
7) To put surveillance on a family who were wrongly suspected of lying on a school application form about living in the catchment area
ReplyDelete6) When a covert surveillance team was used to gather evidence of shellfish being illegally gathered in Poole Harbour
ReplyDeleteReading out a list of servicemen killed in Iraq
ReplyDeleteFrom the wikipedia page, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_Act_2000
ReplyDeleteIn October 2005 Sally Cameron was held in police custody for four hours after being arrested under the Terrorism Act for walking on a cycle path.
In September 2003 two people - Kevin Gillan and Pennie Quinton - intending to protest against Europe's largest international arms show, the Defence Systems Equipment International (DSEI) show in London's Docklands, were stopped and searched under the Act.
An 11-year-old girl was required to empty her pockets, before being handed a notification slip under the Act.
During the G8 protests in 2005, a cricketer on his way to a match was stopped at King's Cross station in London under Section 44 powers and questioned over his possession of a bat.[2]
Being a white, middle class, heterosexual male applying for a government job.
ReplyDelete5) Going to war with Iraq
ReplyDeleteExtraditing the NaWest Three to the US for alleged financial offences committed by Britons, in Britain and against a British counterparty (made worse by the fact that the Americans have still not passed a reciprocating piece of legislation).
ReplyDeleteDoing some work at the Serious Fraud Office - ooohh, definately highly illegal - just ask the Saudi's.
ReplyDeleteOr the FSA, HMRC, Local Government banking departments - anyone found doing any thinking will be taken away and shot -and rightly so.
Being analytical at the BBC. Polly Toynbee being constant etc etc
Under this government there is no such thing as terrorism legislation. There are just more laws that they can use against anybody even if the initial pretence for passing the law was to protect us from terrorists.
ReplyDeleteWhat would you have done for the savers with money in Icelandic banks then Iain?
ReplyDeleteSnooping on doggy doo-doos.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDeleteWhat would you have done for the savers with money in Icelandic banks then Iain?
Since you asked the question, you tell us.
This was a total misuse of the Terrorism Act. Brown knows it, Darling knows it and so do we.
It's comparable with using the Public Order Act against a drunk.
What anyone else would have done is completely irrelevant. The point is that the Terrorism Acts - among others - are greviously abused. No-one could possibly argue that the Terrorism Act's purpose was forseen to include actions against Iceland, nor supplying councils around the United Kingdom with unfettered surveillance powers.
ReplyDeleteTony Sharp said...
ReplyDelete7) To put surveillance on a family who were wrongly suspected of lying on a school application form about living in the catchment area
October 11, 2008 12:42 PM
As far as I'm aware, the act used was the R.I.P.A (Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act), an act of which local authoriteis have made themselves more than slightly familiar. The fact that RIPA was brought in for the investigation of terrorism seems to have been completely ignored. Another misuse of an Act.
This one has to figure fairly highly; the arrest of an arabic student and a clerk at nottingham uni (they were researching counterterrorism and had downloaded a terrorist training manual from a US govt website for study!!)
ReplyDeletehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire/7415685.stm
Total infringement of academic freedom.
Mark Wallace of the Freedom Association being detained outside the Labour Party conference for protesting against ID Cards.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1509277/ID-protester-stopped-and-filmed-under-terror-law-will-have-police-record-for-life.html
The Lords absolubtely have to kick out the 42 days detention bill.
ReplyDeleteThe lie that if you have done nothing then you have nothing to fear has been shown up again and again.
If it had been passed already then the Icelandic president may well have found himself in custody along with van drivers who eat their lunch near a park, people who failed to SORN their vehicles, men applying for jobs as primary school teachers,David Milliband, Max Mosely, that horrid Boris Johnson who booted out their favourite copper, anyone opposing a hospital closure or not supporting a polyclinic...etc
Unintended consequences? There aren't any. We already know what this idiotic government, with its 60 minutes maximum allotment of time to debate even the most serious bill, intends.
It intends to make laws to use as it likes.
Lord Stanstead
Lord Asda
and I'm sure I've seen lord Lidl over at guido's.. do your patriotic duty where we in the commons have failed and end the madness.
Can I suggest a "Top ten of Misusers of Terrorism Legislation"
ReplyDeleteNos 1 to 10 - Labour Government and Police toadies.
Anon1.26
ReplyDeleteTell us what you will do if Gordo does not keep his promises on Iceland and does not 'punish the fat cats'. We know that he thunder and
slogan will go the same way as 'education, education and education'
and 'tough on crime and tough on causes of crime' of Bliar.
Bliar is professor now at Yale!! Guess how did he get it. Follow his secretary at no 10, Ruth Turner, her father Denys Turner professor of religious studies at Yale, you
know which department to find Bliar!
I hope, for it's own sake too, that Labour loses the next election.
ReplyDeleteThey seem to be rapidly going in the direction of the Spanish socialists who kicked off the civil war there and, going farther back, the Cavaliers of the English Civil War. If they stayed in for another five years I think they would go too far to be rescued peacefully.
Modern statists, like their Civil War and continential forebears, keep forgetting that leadership is a two-way bargain. It involves the consent of the people. Fundamental to the democratic settlement is that in return for being allowed to retire without being shot, they accept limits on their power. Labour seems not to know such limits and on our current tragectory, they day they and their journalist cheerleaders are violently relieved of their burdens, draws ever closer. This is not a proposal for violence but a warning to all in power: they cannot abuse it without consequences. There are always consequences.
Abusing power for good reasons is still abuse. Charles I thought he was doing the right thing but that didn't keep his head connected to his body. London's greatest strength (as with the Roman republic) is that it could be trusted to keep its word. Legal process was transparent and predictable, independent of Executive whim. People and their fortunes naturally took refuge here and flourished. By undermining the rule of law with his attack on Icelandic Banks Gordon Brown, no matter how well-meaning, has taken an axe to the root of London's success since the Glorious Revolution.
Calling our NATO allies, the people of Iceland, terrorists!!!!
ReplyDeleteBrown has gone of his trolley with this one. Who is going to trust having their money in this country if Brown can pull such a trick without challenge from the opposition in the House of Commons at the very least?
Would you like to list the 100+ that this law has been used to successfully protect the UK publis from terrorists
ReplyDeletescrewing the world out off £10 BILLION "IS" financial terrorism.
ReplyDeleteIceland has abused it postion in the world.
A nice cuddly nation on the fringes of Europe offered a deal that was too good to be true. and as we know it if too good to be true, then it probably is.
Imagine if UK banks told the world, invest your cash and we will pay 10%. Then trillions of the worlds cash flowed into our banking system, wouldnt alarm bells start ringing. Probabaly. Bue iceland, lets face it, isnt a world player; so the sneaked billions in their banks without the capitol to cover it
Making Highland & Island airports extraodinarily expensive because the same security tules apply as in major airports & it costs £20 per passenger to stop bin Laden landing in Tiree.
ReplyDeleteAnonymong
ReplyDeleteLeave the Icelanders alone.
If people are so fucking stupid that they really don't care where they invest their money, then they deserve to lose it.
Not arresting James Gordon Brown, for destroying this fine country
ReplyDeleteJean Charles de Menezes (7 January 1978 – 22 July 2005)
ReplyDeleteposting anti government comments on blogs.
ReplyDeleteDavid Christopher Kelly CMG (May 17, 1944 – July 17, 2003)
ReplyDeleteThe monitoring of everyone's(not just those under investigation for "suspected crime") electronic communications including e mails;mobile phone calls;text messages internet usage ESPECIALLY political blogs that are in any way critical of our Labour Government and its Supreme Economic Genius & Leader. You have been warned.
ReplyDeleteWasn't one council snooping on people's bin use by using terrorism legislation??
ReplyDeleteIf legislation is there Governments will use it.....take note on the 42 days issue!! I twill end up being used for a whole host of offences that have no link to terrorism
Being arrested using the terrorism act for walking on a cycle path:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article579334.ece
iceland, lets face it, isnt a world player; so the sneaked billions in their banks without the capitol to cover it
ReplyDeleteOctober 11, 2008 3:57 PM
They had plenty of capital.... billions of it was sneaked in - you said so yourself.
Suggest you stop believing the rubbish on the BBC and from HMG
Apparently they used the part of the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act that does not only appply to terrorists.
ReplyDeleteFunny isn't it? Put anything you like in a Bill, just make sure you include the word Anti-terrorism in the title to discourage opposition to it.
Anon 1:26
ReplyDeleteWhat are you going to do about my Barclay's shares which have lost £1300 over the last year. Pay me some money.
Admitting information obtained by torture as evidence in British courts.
ReplyDeleteFacilitating extraordinary rendition flights.
I waould describe the Icalndic more as Pirates than terrorists. Don't we still have hanging for piracy ?
ReplyDeleteCertain Police Authorities constantly rolling over their 28 day security zones.(Except in a few instances when they got their dates wrong.)
ReplyDeleteAnon 3:35pm
ReplyDeleteOK, where's your list?
Shafting the Lords. I'm no fan of hereditary dudes but at least those guys had an understanding of history and weren't place men. They got paid significantly less than MP's, knew that it wasn't an opportunity for advancement and cared about the people.
ReplyDeleteIt's wrong of me to criticize them - they've been the most effective bastion against Stalin's purges.
Canvas - leave it out - Yankie cops chuck smack on kids and call their death drug related.
The Terror Legislation wasn't used to expel Walter Wolfgang from the Labour Party conference. Stewards ejected him from the hall for heckling excessively and his day pass was cancelled.
ReplyDeleteLater in the day he was stopped by the police when he tried to get back into the conference hall without a valid pass. He was detained for a few minutes by the police (using their powers under the Terrorism Act) while they checked him out. His pass was later reinstated and he was allowed back into the hall.
The same powers are used at Conservative Party conferences to hold suspected gatecrashers while they are checked out.
The Wolfgang incident was in Brighton where, as Margaret Thatcher or Norman Tebbit might remind you, terrorist incidents at party conferences are not unknown.
No.1 and by far the most worrying for our human rights and freedom has to be the case of the local councils spying on innocent families... God knows where that will end if if is allowed to go unpunished.
ReplyDeleteThere are many, many reasons to attack Brown and NuLabour but you don't get anywhere by a misrepresentation of the facts (a Brownie as Fraser Nelson would term it). As Anon at 5.51 points out anti-terror legislation wasn't invoked to expel Walter Wolfgang from the Labour Party conference. And, as is even stated in the opening paragraph on wikipedia, the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act of 2001 contains MANY measures that are not related to terrorism. It was one of these measures that was used to freeze the assets of one Icelandic bank.
ReplyDeletenot arresting hazel blears
ReplyDeletejohn miller said...
ReplyDelete"What are you going to do about my Barclay's shares which have lost £1300 over the last year. Pay me some money"
Mr/Mrs, Hague look chipper enjoying their Barclay's junket. You don't think your money was spent on that little frivolity do you?
"Bliar is professor now at Yale!! Guess how did he get it. Follow his secretary at no 10, Ruth Turner, her father Denys Turner professor of religious studies at Yale, you
ReplyDeleteknow which department to find Bliar!"
Wonder how Ffion Hague got to be an advisor to Barclays Wealth which offers a 'bespoke management service' to help the rich make more money through investments.
Follow her husband....?
It used to be called the revolving door in the good old Tory days.
pretty straight sort of guy:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/labour/3179770/Revealed-the-truth-about-Tony-Blairs-role-in-the-Ecclestone-Affair.html
Labour sleaze
Yes Baldy W Vague seems to be in the Doo Doo.
ReplyDelete"We hate bankers".... errrrr "Now", that is unless they send me on a junket...Yawn
Flip Flop Flip
anon 7:30, the Labour rebuttal automaton.
ReplyDeleteYou sound as if you have the brain size of a bacteria. Lord Sleaze should programme you better as you sound like well used tape. You missed my point.
The mainstream media suppressing all of the above.
ReplyDeleteIt is not politicians that will create the police state, it is the thought forming media!
8:11
ReplyDeletewhat is it with Tory Bloggers - they seem to think they own bloggland
*** You dont ***
Lib, Lab, SNP. BNP etc etc
are awash with people who do not agree, and they are argued against, but if you dare mutter a word in Toryland you are automatically from Lab HQ - Paranoid twats.
NO paranoids , not everyone agress with you. Will the Tory party be coming out in favour of tax haven toss pots who banked abroad..
C4 news tonight - pathetic attempt at trying to put a human side to tax dodgers who have lost their shirts...
8:20
ReplyDeleteParanoid
When can we expect the mark two Gordon riots?
ReplyDeleteTo the anons who are Labour Party rebuttal automatons.
ReplyDeleteDaily Mail just reports on Bliar's
first sleaze in Ecclestone affair. Gordo seems very much in the thick of it
Lord Slwaze at it again. The Sunday times reports:
ReplyDelete"Peter Mandelson gave trade concessions worth up to £50m a year to Russia’s richest man who has entertained him on his superyacht".
Gordon Brown in preventing anyone from challenging him for the leadership of the Labour Party
ReplyDeleteAnon 5.51PM
ReplyDeleteTerrorism isn't unknown at party conferancess...
But the labour party would not be a target. The IRA would not target the party of Livingstone the Muslims would not target the party that is letting so many of them into this country and giving them postal votes. They would not target the party that gave us the 'human rights' that stop us jailing or deporting anybody unless they are white Americans that married a Briton and lived and worked in this country for decades or a White Zimbabwean or a Gurka.
Gordo and his minions are rejoicing that the Terrorism laws were applied against Icelanding banks to freeze their assets. Brown babe Mrs Balls
ReplyDeletegave a sixth form student's response to what happens now after this spat with Iceland. She never forgot to bring in the words 'global problem' and as usual Mr Jackie Ashley, Marr the Labour crony, never pressed her enough about the tax rises that follow Gordo snake oil cure, and never once mentioned about Gordo-engineered credit boom and weak BOE and FSA regulation.
The paper tiger Brown who roars now was part of the discredited government that did not apply terrorist laws hard enough against the Afghan hijackers and let their own folly of incorporating human rights to work against this country as the court let these thugs to say. Brown was never concerned about muslim terrorists claiming asylum, drawing benefits and staying in this country. We recently learned that an asylum seeker with many children is living in a 1.2 million house and claiming tens and thousands pounds of benefit, thanks to Gordo's generosity of looking after foreigners. What happened to even normal laws and procedures applying here?
What about that time when lots of people were held in the open air at Oxford Circus, including German tourists who were trying to get to heathrow to get their flight home? It was triggered by one of the may-day protests
ReplyDeleteAnti-terrorist powers have also been used against protesters outside arms fairs. Liberty regularly publishes incidents like these.
This gets to two deep truths. 1) The police / government will use to the absolute maximum any powers provided whatever they were originally created for
2) The idea that you have nothing to worry about if you have done nothing wrong is a lie
It is for these reasons I am deeply against the id cards and database scheme
Norman, or is it Simon?
ReplyDeleteWhoever. Whatever.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to make my point.
And Norman. Stop panicking about what Marr didn't say or ask. He's a journalist not a financial genius.
Leave it to the brains around the world to deal with this crisis, and though I know it's heartbreaking and hard for you to accept, rumour has it that they may be more astute and qualified to deal with it than you.
anon 12:12 PM , not surprised that Lord Sleaze's reprogramming of his automatons has not worked!
ReplyDeleteYes, I was saying if you can think independently that we are waiting for people of superior intellect like Gordo and his side kick Mrs Balls to mess our economy yet again.
Do not bring the world into this. It is Gordo's mess.
anon 12.12PM
ReplyDeleteSorry I forgot to answer your question I am neither Norman nor simon. My name is Derek Draper! Can't you not see i am 'reverse spinning'! Remember, we met last time in Mandy's very comfortable home
(bless him he has become a millionaire now, thanks to EC!) an he asked me to learn 'reverse spin'!
Shipping people, British citizens not accused of terrorist offences, post haste across the Atlantic to face American kangaroo courts. Remember how tough it was to get an actual terrorist deported back here to face some proper justice.
ReplyDeleteHarriet Harperson, You forgot to mention English.
ReplyDeleteHasn't RIPA been used for surveillance on fly-tipping and those not recycling properly ??
ReplyDelete