The London Blasts: Media Review

THREE MONTHS ON - FOUR YEARS ON

DAY 95: 10 October 2005

Contents

Repression - Meet You Later / ID Cards / Attorney General Doubts / Ten More Detainees

Denial - Muslim Taskforce

REPRESSION

REPRESSION - MEET YOU LATER

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown and the Daily Telegraph editors have a similar theme today: 'Where's the outcry about our police state?' says the liberal columnist. 'Farewell to freedom' says the conservative editorial:

'Cast your eye over some of the stories in today's newspaper. Cars are to be installed with chips making it easier to incriminate their drivers. Fluoridisation is to be extended to most of England. Smoking may be banned from pubs and restaurants. Work is going ahead on an identity card scheme in anticipation of parliamentary ratification. A law lord says the Government's anti-terrorist laws are exorbitant and unnecessary. Employers will be forced to grant paternity leave to their staff. A Bill outlawing religious hatred is about to go before the Lords.'

'None of these proposals, on its own, is a mortal threat to the liberty of the subject. A case can be made, in isolation, for each of them. But, taken together, they indicate a substantial shift in power from citizen to state. And this is just one day's news.'

The Independent editorial today is rather similar, but with a different list of problems - it condemns the Government's 'Anti-Social Behaviour Orders', and its 'illiberal and authoritarian' immigration policies.

The Telegraph editorial ends with words that could come from Alibhai-Brown's column (albeit somewhat more elegiac):

'Inch by inch, this administration is turning Britain into a very different kind of country. That we should be letting it happen without a murmur says little good about us.'

Riseup, the radical US internet services group who host the daily JNV email, have a pithy saying which could round off all of this: 'get off the internet, I'll meet you in the streets'.

REPRESSION - ID CARDS START MOVING

The Telegraph reports: 'Whitehall deploys 117 staff on ID plan before it is approved' (page 10, not online). This includes staff and outside consultants:

'Official figures show that the cost of developing the project is at least £20 million so far... Mark Oaten, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said: "These figures reveal this government's arrogant disregard for both parliament and public opinion".'

REPRESSION - 90 DAYS DETENTION QUESTIONED BY ATTORNEY GENERAL

'Lord Goldsmith has written to Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, to say he is not persuaded of the case for detaining suspected terrorists for 90 days before they must be charged or released.'

'The Attorney-General’s spokesman told The Times: “He believes the case is there for longer than 14 days but is not convinced he has seen a case for 90 days.” That did not mean he would not support 90 days in future but he had yet to see evidence to support such a move, the spokesman said. He believed any move must be subject to “rigorous judicial scrutiny”. His letter was written in his capacity as a Cabinet minister commenting on policy rather than as a legal opinion.' (Times, page 4)

REPRESSION - TEN MORE DETAINEES

The Times has a long piece today: 'Ten arrested in raids against groups linked to al-Zarqawi'

'Security sources claim that police have intercepted information hinting that further atrocities were being planned for London and other UK cities using cars packed with explosives. The intended targets have not been revealed.' (page 4)

That's one way of putting it. Another formulation is in the Guardian:

'The arrests followed a long-term joint police and MI5 surveillance operation, but new intelligence led to the arrests on Saturday morning, the officials said. They described the arrests as "certainly significant" and linked to a "potential direct threat to the UK". But they said it was not clear what the plot was, when it was planned for, and what the targets were.' (page 7)

Incidentally, the article in The Times says:

'Senior police officers still cannot agree on the numbers who went to camps run by al-Qaeda. Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington, the recently retired Metropolitan Police Commissioner, put the figure at 2,000. His successor, Sir Ian Blair, claims it is nearer 200.'

Bit of a difference of opinion there.

DENIAL

MUSLIM TASKFORCE - BUNTING

Madeleine Bunting has the impressive achievement of writing a near-full-page article about the Muslim taskforce debacle without mentioning 'British foreign policy' until almost the last sentence:

'Paul Goggins, the minister on faith and community cohesion, .... says he'd like Muslims to speak with a more "united voice": the internecine factionalism of minority community politics is confusing. The irony of course is that when Muslims do speak with one voice - on British foreign policy - Goggins and his government colleagues refuse to listen.'

Just above, there is a fleeting mention of the topic:

'The government will help, but basically it's down to Muslims to sort themselves out... If that wasn't a tall enough order in a country whose foreign policy incenses the Muslim community...'

What about a media that is blocking out the clearly expressed view of those establishment Muslims invited to be on the Muslim taskforce? Does that incense anyone? Anyone at all?

JNV welcomes feedback.