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Telegraph: Ten urgent steps to make Britain safer
EFL
The country is stunned by a series of violent and terrifying events in London. These "incidents", as the police insist on calling them, have the potential to instil a permanent state of fear among the population. Action, both bold and sensitive, is required to prevent more of them.
Ultimately, terrorism will only end through a change of heart to the non-beating mode among the fanatics who are prepared to immolate themselves and others in the name of God. The war on terror is a war of culture, between the civilisation which stands for freedom and democracy and the corrupt mentality which sees death and destruction as the only acceptable alternative to the establishment of Islamic theocracy.
Getting warmer, but no cigar.
This war must be fought on both the cultural and the security fronts. We here set out a list of 10 proposals which, we believe, should be implemented as a matter of urgency. It is unfortunate that just as Britain faces its most severe internal security threat in decades, MPs have this week risen for a three-month holiday. We strongly urge the Government to recall Parliament to debate and enact this legislative programme.
1. Confidently assert British values
The Government, schools, the BBC and other cultural outlets should launch a campaign to celebrate the virtues and values of Britishness, and to inculcate these values in the children who grow up, and the migrants who settle, in our country.
2. Exclude foreign undesirables
The Government should unilaterally withdraw from the 1951 Convention and other related protocols. This will, inter alia, allow us to return unwanted arrivals to the last safe country they visited before arriving in Britain.
3. Repeal the Human Rights Act
Judges have also used the European Convention on Human Rights (incorporated into UK law by the 1998 Human Rights Act) to second-guess government decisions, arguing that Article Three of the ECHR gives people the right not to be returned to countries where they may face degrading or inhumane treatment.
This is not an argument which troubles other signatories to the ECHR (notably France, which frequently returns undesirables to Algeria). The Government should repeal the Human Rights Act and consider withdrawing from the ECHR altogether.
4. Crackdown on propaganda
London is a global centre for the dissemination of Islamist propaganda. The Government should expand the legal provisions against the incitement of violence. A specific law banning "religious hatred" is unnecessary; anyone encouraging or exulting in the murder of the citizens of Britain or her allies should be liable to prosecution.
5. Intercept evidence admissable in court
The Government has consistently refused to allow intercept evidence (phone taps and other surveillance techniques) to be used in court to aid the prosecution of terrorism suspects. Astounding! But if we are serious about preventing attacks before they happen, and locking up those who plan them, we must allow these most informative of techniques to be legally admissable.
6. Visible police presence
The Government should abandon its planned legislation for identity cards. By far the most effective preventative action we can take against terrorists is to increase the number of front-line officers dedicated to listening to and reporting on suspicious activity in the Muslim community, and to patrolling likely target sites. Therefore, ministers should devote the estimated £584 million annual cost of the ID card scheme to increasing the numbers of police officers on duty in Britain's streets and transport networks.
7. Sensible policing
As well as growing in number, the police should be freed to exercise common sense in their pursuit and questioning of terrorism suspects. Following the Macpherson Report of 1999, the Government has required police officers who stop and question a member of the public to fill in a 40-question form reporting the encounter, including information on the racial profile of the suspect.
The effect of this requirement, which was intended to restore confidence in the sensitivity of the police to ethnic minorities, is to alienate the police from the community by erecting a barrier of officialdom between policeman and citizen. "Sensitivity", in today's context, is a policy of wilfully ignoring the individuals most likely to be terrorists. In the face of the threat of terrorism, we must all accept an impact on the way we live: the unfortunate additional burden borne by British Asians must be an inevitable increase in frustrating attention from the police.
8. Expectation for Muslims to join the police and security forces
Asians will more happily accept being stopped if it is Asian officers doing the stopping. I'm not sure this one is true. My experience is that many blacks in the US who are stopped by a black cop just see him as an uncle Tom doing the Man's work for him. Britain is also badly disadvantaged by the lack of Muslim police and security officers who could infiltrate radical Islamist networks in Britain.
9. Effective border controls
Only when the national government assumes and enforces absolute control over entry to and egress from these islands will we have the capability to contain the threat of terrorism from abroad. Sounds familiar
10. Increased detention facilities
Currently there are only 1,200 places available for the detention of would-be migrants and refugees who arrive in Britain without adequate documentation, or who arouse the suspicion of the authorities.
Many thousands of migrants are admitted to the UK each year and allowed to move freely around the country before security checks are performed on them. We must considerably enlarge Britain's detention facilities.
You could just reject them faster, too.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2005-07-23 |
