Last Saturday, I wrote about the disturbing Times coverage of a "terror" story. Melanie Phillips, writing for a US audience, has taken up the same issue. She argues that British judges are liberal, outdated, and making the world less safe. She links benefits "rights" culture with terrorism. You know the score. But the truly remarkable bit in her wrong-headed diatribe is her admission that "Neither Abu Qatada nor "U" has been prosecuted in Britain, because U.K. authorities possess no evidence to charge these men with plotting terrorist acts." She doesn't even think about what that means. She continues to treat these two men as if they are the devil incarnate.
For fuck's sake. We don't have enough evidence. What does she suggest? Lock them up indefinitely on a hunch, on a sliver of information that wouldn't stand up in court? What ever happened to Innocent until proven guilty? The women is a hysterical lunatic, unfortunately many people think like her. Lets bring common sense back please.
Wednesday, 2 July 2008
Melanie Phillips: you are a self-defeating, dangerous, dolt
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2 comments:
"What ever happened to Innocent until proven guilty?"
It's never existed for reactionaries.
I've noticed on the tube in the evenings, while tiredly seeing over people's shoulders onto their trashy tabloids, that there are more and more headlines in which an accused person is described as a criminal, with the term in inverted commas (perhaps to avoid libel).
eg. "Rapist" Faces Court Ordeal
eg. "Paedophile" Attacked in Street
And so on. In such a mindset life is a narrative of Good versus Evil, in which it is very obvious which is which and evidence and fair trials are merely inconvenient hurdles.
Melanie is up for the title of 'best blog in the UK' at the moment:
http://tinyurl.com/votecib
A vote for what's at #2 would be appreciated if you could?
Pass it on!
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