6th October 2010
Home Secretary Gives Mixed Signals on Liberty
Mark Hanson
The Home Secretary, Theresa May, gave a passionate speech to the Conservative Party’s annual conference yesterday, in which she outlined Labour’s failure to tackle crime and extremism and gave some indication of what the present Government will undertake to do.
The attacks on Labour’s record are hardly surprising, yet in a passage particularly relevant to Rabel’s work May outlined her approach to tackling terrorism and extremism.
In part, this was encouraging, as she outlined the review of counter-terrorism measures and railed against Labour’s plethora of new offences, making mention of the Coalition’s Freedom Bill which is soon to be introduced to Parliament.
May said: “We're reviewing the counter-terrorism laws ahead of the Freedom Bill. We've restricted the use of stop and search powers. And I am proud to say that the Government's first piece of legislation was to scrap ID cards once and for all.”
She continued: “I want the message to go out to every corner of our country: this is a government that knows every British subject is born free, everybody is innocent until proven guilty and everybody is equal before the law.” Such words are very welcome.
There are, however, some notes of concern. May’s insistence that incitement to hatred is a criminal act marks a success for Labour, who intended us all to live happily ever after without ever voicing dissent, and would eventually have put in jail any who espoused a philosophy deemed unacceptable. Plainly, from a Christian perspective, hatred of people, let alone incitement to hatred of people, is not acceptable behaviour. May has failed to address concerns, however, that the explosion of “hate crimes”, both in law and in the public consciousness, has resulted in many being targeted simply because their views do not tally with the seasonal wind of political correctness.
It remains to be seen if this government will undo the situation where a complaint against homosexual outlandishness is a matter for police investigation; an expression that Islam is a religion based on falsehood is liable to criminal justice attention; and the preaching of Biblical viewpoints on sexual conduct is an arrestable offence.
May said: “Let the message also go out that we will not tolerate anybody who seeks to abuse those liberties. Foreign hate preachers will no longer be welcome here. Those who step outside the law to incite hatred and violence will be prosecuted and punished. And we will stand up to anybody who incites hatred and violence, who supports attacks on British troops, or who supports attacks on civilians anywhere in the world.”
The question that remains after this speech is this: which crimes of hatred will remain, and which will be consigned to the history books. Talking about prosecuting those who preach hate is one thing, prosecuting those who advocate a firm religious or political stance merely suppresses the tendencies, and they will only explode in revolt at a later time.