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Gleen Greenwald, the man who Edward Snowden initially chose as the mouthpiece for his whistle blowing document leaks, has called out the UK, its government and Prime Minister David Cameron, as the biggest threat to democracy and freedom of speech in the world, not the terrorist organisations they so often rail against. Specifically he points to the newly elected Conservative party's proposal for powers that would mean the banning of organisations or groups which could be considered under any definition as “extremist.”
“It’s not enough for British subjects merely to “obey the law”; they must refrain from believing in or expressing ideas which Her Majesty’s Government dislikes,” Greenwald says in his scathing breakdown of the suggested governmental powers.
Greenwald also published the book “No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State.”
The rhetoric spouted by politicians like Cameron and Theresa May he says, is a smokescreen covering the fact that the very measures being discussed to try and combat extremism, societal division and non-tolerance of different faiths and ideals, are exactly the sort of democracy destroying ideals that they are claiming to try and combat. These politicians he says, including ones from France, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, and all of them them have a “desire to curb freedoms in the name of protecting them: prosecuting people for Facebook postings critical of Western militarism or selling “radical” cable channels,” he says, pointing to incidents where people have been arrested for things they've said.
What's bizarre he says, is that all of this censorship and thought-crime policing comes just months after so many politicians marched in support of free speech after the Charlie Hebdo murders.
“For those who truly believe in principles of free expression — as opposed to pretending to when it allows one to bash the Other Tribe — these are the assaults [on freedom] that need marches and protests.”
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KitGuru Says: It really is bizarre to see people like May claim that others are looking to build racial and religious intolerance, when the laws they want to enact will give the power to shutter Mosques and other buildings which may be used to foster this vague concept of “extremism.”
Image source: Gage Skidmore/Flickr
i totally agree turning out to be commies tories are
Ahh the English, Always going on about how they are a democracy, News flash, You can’t have a democracy when you have an unelected house, A royal family and no constitution.
you are joking right? they wouldnt have the balls to go that far and if they did there would be an outcry and the police just wouldnt go along with it, they are just normal people too you know
While ‘Normal People’ is a term I’d hesitate to apply to the vast majority of our current government, Curtis, I think the way to appreciate the Snoopers Charter and such as the horrors they are isn’t that there are members of the government who are singlemindedly pursuing a dream to prosecute members of the public for even the most privately shared expression of discontent, (there blatantly are but nevermind that for now.)
The issue is; 5, 10, 20 years from now would this have paved the way for your neighbors to be disappeared in the night for emailing a friend to say you think the Margaret Thatcher Museum was a bit of a waste of money, and that she was actually a bit of a terrible person.
The answer is yes. Baby steps.
Everyone is a “normal” person until the point at which they are persuaded or induced to do something barbaric. You think everyone who has ever followed an unethical or immoral order was just an evil, abnormal person anyway?
Communists…? Really? Is everyone bad just a Communist…? -_-‘
Right-wing facists who are trying to thought police the country, I belive is more appropriate.
Hell, they’re trying to privatise things and pander to corporate interests, that’s pretty much the anti-communism.
Royal Family are nothing but a traditionalist idea and a tourist trap. The Queens biggest job nowadays is a bit of ambassadorial hosting.
Funny how there was little to no outcry re freedom of speech from the left when Liam Stacey made racist tweets against black footballer Fabrice Muamba a few years ago and got carted off to prison. People like Anjem Choudhury say racist things like that against non Muslim British citizens every day and get away with it for the moment. All this will do is even the balance a bit by preventing another form of hate speech.
The House of Lords has very little power compared to the House of Commons, they can only introduce bills and amend them (both of which can be veto’d by the House of Commons).
The Royal Family is a constitutional monarchy, they don’t get involved in politics. Which is a much better alternative to an elected executive Head of State, such as say, the POTUS, who has executive power to pretty much do what he wants, and can elect his senior staff without any consent of the people (Hilary Clinton, anyone?). It’s even better than a non-executive Head of State, as, well, what’s the point? At least our Royal Family has a tradition going back hundreds and hundreds of years, and generates billions of pounds in tourism, and global prestige.
We do have a constitution, the clue’s in the name “constitutional monarchy”, it’s not written on a single piece of paper like the yanks, as we had the actual sense to try and evolve our political system over the years to adapt to what was most appropriate, rather than declaring it was ok to use guns and wander around with them in the street in the 19th century, and then dogmatically carry that on to the 21st century, where guns are now 5x as compact, and 10x as lethal.
Britain *is* a democracy, and a damn site better one then most – almost incomparably so to America. An American federalist system where congressmen can band together in the interests of their individual states to make federal laws is just insane – it just creates an unbalanced and aggressively competitive system that penalises politicians for doing the right thing, and voting with a conscious and rewarding those who cut back room deals with each other to get the legislation they want through. That’s why there’s such wealth disparity and unhappiness in the States, and nothing even approaching the social security and social welfare, education and health in the UK.
This is just an article written by an ex Guardian reporter, of course he’s going to jump all over this, the Guardian are liberal republicans who hate the Conservatives or anyone not politically aligned with them with a passion.