Re: Thought police muscle up in Britain

On 12 May, 03:51, desert <r...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Thought police muscle up in Britain

BRITAIN appears to be evolving into the first modern soft totalitarian
state. As a sometime teacher of political science and international
law, I do not use the term totalitarian loosely.

There are no concentration camps or gulags but there are thought police
with unprecedented powers to dictate ways of thinking and sniff out
heresy, and there can be harsh punishments for dissent.

Nikolai Bukharin claimed one of the Bolshevik Revolution's principal
tasks was "to alter people's actual psychology". Britain is not
Bolshevik, but a campaign to alter people's psychology and create a new
Homo britannicus is under way without even a fig leaf of disguise.

The Government is pushing ahead with legislation that will criminalise
politically incorrect jokes, with a maximum punishment of up to seven
years' prison. The 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."

A 10-year-old child was arrested and brought before a judge, for having
allegedly called an 11-year-old boya "Paki" and "bin Laden" during a
playground argument at a primary school (the other boy had called him a
skunk and a Teletubby). When it reached the court the case had cost
taxpayers pound stg. 25,000. The accused was so distressed that he had
stopped attending school. The judge, Jonathan Finestein, said: "Have we
really got to the stage where we are prosecuting 10-year-old boys
because of political correctness? There are major crimes out there and
the police don't bother to prosecute. This is nonsense."

Finestein was fiercely attacked by teaching union leaders, as in those
witch-hunt trials where any who spoke in defence of an accused or
pointed to defects in the prosecution were immediately targeted as
witches and candidates for burning.

Hate-crime police investigated Basil Brush, a puppet fox on children's
television, who had made a joke about Gypsies. The BBC confessed that
Brush had behaved inappropriately and assured police that the episode
would be banned.

A bishop was warned by the police for not having done enough to
"celebrate diversity", the enforcing of which is now apparently a
police function. A Christian home for retired clergy and religious
workers lost a grant because it would not reveal to official snoopers
how many of the residents were homosexual. That they had never been
asked was taken as evidence of homophobia.

Muslim parents who objected to young children being given books
advocating same-sex marriage and adoption at one school last year had
their wishes respected and the offending material withdrawn. This year,
Muslim and Christian parents at another school objecting to the same
material have not only had their objections ignored but have been
threatened with prosecution if they withdraw their children.

There have been innumerable cases in recent months of people in
schools, hospitals and other institutions losing their jobs because of
various religious scruples, often, as in the East Germany of yore, not
shouted fanatically from the rooftops but betrayed in private
conversations and reported to authorities. The crime of one nurse was
to offer to pray for a patient, who did not complain but merely
mentioned the matter to another nurse. A primary school receptionist,
Jennie Cain, whose five-year-old daughter was told off for talking
about Jesus in class, faces the sack for seeking support from her
church. A private email from her to other members of the church asking
for prayers fell into the hands of school authorities.

Permissiveness as well as draconianism can be deployed to destroy
socially accepted norms and values. The Royal Navy, for instance, has
installed a satanist chapel in a warship to accommodate the
proclivities of a satanist crew member. "What would Nelson have said?"
is a British newspaper cliche about navy scandals, but in this case
seems a legitimate question. Satanist paraphernalia is also supplied to
prison inmates who need it.

This campaign seems to come from unelected or quasi-governmental bodies
controlling various institutions, which are more or less unanswerable
to electors, more than it does directly from the Government, although
the Government helps drive it and condones it in a fudged and deniable
manner.

Any one of these incidents might be dismissed as an aberration, but
taken together - and I have only mentioned a tiny sample; more are
reported almost every day - they add up to a pretty clear picture.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,25361297-7583,00.html?f...

Eric Blair was almost right. Only 25 years out in his prediction.

Be gentle on yourselves

Simon
.

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