Police State Britain: Tories would arrest you for looking at them in a funny way

Antisocial: Under the new legislation, the role of the police as the strong arm of the state will increase; law and order will have increasingly less to do with their job.

Antisocial: Under the new legislation, the role of the police as the strong arm of the state will increase; law and order will have increasingly less to do with their job.

Isn’t it nice for our police that they seem to have had a long time to prepare for the new Antisocial Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill’s passage into law – as long ago as 2010 they were warning a 12-year-old boy, who wanted to save his youth centre, that they could arrest him.

The Mirror reported at the time that Nicky Wishart was removed from class – by anti-terror police – after he used Facebook to organise a protest outside David Cameron’s constituency office. His innocent request for people to “save our youth centre” was used as evidence against him.

Nicky lives in Cameron’s Witney, Oxfordshire constituency. The paper reported him as saying, “All this is because Mr Cameron is our local MP and it’s a bit embarrassing for him.”

On a personal note, this story bears a strong resemblance to what happened when I submitted my Freedom of Information request on mortality rates for people claiming Employment and Support Allowance/Incapacity Benefit. My own request for anyone else who believes the facts should be known to follow my example was held up as an excuse to dismiss the request as “vexatious” and refuse to answer it – and it is clear that this site continues to be monitored by the Department for Work and Pensions.

Nicky’s story could be repeated many times every day if the Antisocial Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill becomes law.

As Jayne Linney has pointed out in an article I reblogged here today, it criminalises “any behaviour that may be deemed as “nuisance”, or liable to cause annoyance… it actually allows the police to arrest any group in a public place they think may upset someone!”

Peaceful protest will become a criminal offence.

The basic assumption of British law – that a person is innocent until proven guilty – will be swept away and forgotten.

Not only does this link in with the aims of the so-called Transparency of Lobbying Bill – to gag anyone who would inform the public of the ever-more harmful transgressions committed by our ever-more despotic right-wing rulers – it also provides an easy way of filling all the privately-run prisons they have been building.

Of course, some might argue that this would be no hardship, since the new private prisons are run appallingly badly. However, Justice Secretary Chris Grayling has praised the failing Oakwood, mismanaged by G4S, as his favourite prison and anyone saying differently after the Lobbying Bill is passed, or campaigning to make it less easy to get drugs and more easy to get soap there after the Antisocial Behaviour bill is passed, will face the possibility of a term inside.

And consider this: The Conservative-led government has hundreds of millions of pounds for projects like Oakwood, run by their favourite firms like G4S – but if you want help getting a business going you’re pretty much on your own. They will change the law to ensure that their version of events and opinion on issues can be broadcast to the masses, while opposing views are gagged. Yet they describe all their actions as “fair”.

How would you describe their behaviour?

Get your answers in quickly; they’ll soon be illegal.

(Thanks, as ever, to the ‘Constable Savage’ sketch from Not The Nine O’clock News for help with the headline.)

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33 Comments

  1. Joseph Smith January 7, 2014 at 12:36 pm - Reply

    HA! The Tories puppet Gestapo, completely useless at catching criminals and celebrity sex offenders, but excellent at killing innocent disabled bystanders, excellent at taunting miners, excellent at preventing legitament protest, in short excellent at licking political bottoms and pretty much no feckin use at anything else.

  2. joanna January 7, 2014 at 12:37 pm - Reply

    Mike there is an e.petition about this which is active until July. I have already signed it, it has 7019 signatures so far.

    • Mike Sivier January 7, 2014 at 1:00 pm - Reply

      I’ve signed it too. There’s a link in the ‘Control of the People becomes Law’ article.

  3. Danny January 7, 2014 at 12:38 pm - Reply

    Excellent article, however I should point out that the Mirror story is from Dec 2010.

    • Mike Sivier January 7, 2014 at 1:02 pm - Reply

      Thanks for that Danny – I’ve amended it as the main thrust of the article is topical today.

      I read the Mirror article after seeing a link to it that was posted on Facebook today; there was no reference to the story being three years old. I checked the date on it but didn’t register that it was December 2010, not December 2013.

      This has been happening a lot, recently – people posting links to old news stories as if they were current. In fact some readers of this blog have posted links to content that was more than a year old, presumably in the belief that it was current. The moral of the story is: Always check dates thoroughly.

      • Florence January 7, 2014 at 1:20 pm - Reply

        New or old, it perfectly illustrates what will happen when this law is enabled. There is law to limit the police, as well as limit crime. The police are very good at creating a need for the law to be changed to what they want, so 2010 is a good starting point for how they actually behave, and how they want to be allowed to do so legally. In 2010, there was no statute under which they could pursue this lad. Now there is.

  4. HelenLWalkden January 7, 2014 at 1:20 pm - Reply

    Couldn’t we turn this to our advantage? I find politicians extremely annoying and their policies a nuisance…

    • Mitch Mitchell January 7, 2014 at 10:15 pm - Reply

      But it only works for them not serfs like you and me.

  5. […] Read More at Police State Britain: Tories would arrest you for looking at them in a funny way. […]

  6. deb January 7, 2014 at 1:49 pm - Reply

    There is no real suprise there considering there polotics and ethics if you think about the new published cuts for 2014 it concentrates on welfare , definatley with the housing cuts your going to have thousands of young familys searching for affordable homes all over the UK already living in real poverty and hunger many of them WILL end up losing there children to the system. So there’s going to be many many desperate mentally effected people wandering our streets with nothing of any meaning left in there sad lives.

  7. Leoni Al-ajeel January 7, 2014 at 2:27 pm - Reply

    Disgusting just another form of control and fear, we will exist not live. And what do they plan to do with all the children that will be removed from people who lose their homes, there is already a shortage of foster carers and homes. None of this makes any sense at all, i find it very disturbing. We will be nothing but slaves with no voice.

  8. Sickofemall January 7, 2014 at 2:58 pm - Reply

    The trouble is we have sleep walked in to a police state.again using the justification narrative technique…well we have to give control back to locals….it’s the yobs that made us do it…blah blah and most people fall for it as they don’t question anything.NOW it’s too late..do to you really think any petition will change this?Do you really think the next govt will??……look up the anti association laws now in force in Queensland Australia …and don’t be fooled its all aimed at curbing certain motorcycle clubs .It is not that is just the justification for the law.Think it won’t happen here that you can be arrested for having a beer with your mates or be arrested walking down a street….or have your business taken…your kids taken in to care all,because of anti association laws.YOU really think this new bill will stop at its present level….WAKE THE HELL UP……

  9. untynewear January 7, 2014 at 4:12 pm - Reply

    Reblogged this on UNEMPLOYED IN TYNE & WEAR.

  10. beastrabban January 7, 2014 at 4:29 pm - Reply

    Reblogged this on Beastrabban’s Weblog and commented:
    I’ve already blogged about how Gove’s rant about the First World War, Blackadder and Oh, What a Lovely War! represent an attack on intellectual freedom in British schools and universities. Thatcher went one step further. She didn’t just talk, she actively passed a law banning Marxists from teaching at Uni. This legislation will definitely be used to clamp down further on the right to demonstrate and protest against government injustice,

  11. Sickofemall January 7, 2014 at 5:09 pm - Reply

    No mike I am not .My comment there is a general one to those who seem to think the govt can do no wrong and everything they do is for our own good .Sheep led by donkeys who read the daily vile etc etc.Trouble is it’s not just them it’s also those who don’t think for themselves or care….as it won’t happen,or doesn’t apply,to me people so loved by those who seek to persuade that it’s all the fault of the poor etc….I was among a group of people who actually DID take the govt on when the FIRST criminal justice bill first came in back in the 90s and we paid for it ourselves and fought them all the way? This time it will be much much harder as they have had decades to plan and implement it this time and yes it’s all so convincing that it will only apply to anti social,yobs and rowdy council house tenants……justification narrative at its fullest there.But when the right to protest has gone will any of those who neither think or care even notice???will they hell and that’s exactly how it is meant to be.Doff your cap and know your place…..hurrah….

    • Mike Sivier January 7, 2014 at 5:26 pm - Reply

      I was talking to a man on the street about this just now; he thought people would take to the streets and I had to ask how they’d fit that in with their viewing of Coronation Street.

  12. Paul Smyth January 7, 2014 at 5:09 pm - Reply

    Reblogged this on The Greater Fool.

  13. Paul Billanie January 7, 2014 at 6:11 pm - Reply

    “it criminalises “any behaviour that may be deemed as “nuisance”, or liable to cause annoyance… it actually allows the police to arrest any group in a public place they think may upset someone!”

    OK EVERYONE in Parliament, both houses that is, should then beware! THEIR behaviour can be deemed a nuisance or cause annoyance. It does allow the police to arrest ANYONE in a PUBLIC place they think may upset someone…I will be among the first to try this out methinks if it becomes law. 999: Yes which service please. Me: police please, there is a large group of people causing annoyance and nuisance to me…they are all hanging around Parliament…anyone else fancy giving it a go? On top of which when they are shouting and jeering at each other it causes me considerable distress, they are behaving in a completely antisocial way…

  14. jaypot2012 January 7, 2014 at 7:13 pm - Reply

    When a person has nothing left then that is when he is the most dangerous. The government are really going to have to watch their backs because these new sets of cuts and the amount of sanctions will take people down to a level that they have never been before, nor should they be at that level.

    • Anonymous January 11, 2014 at 10:49 am - Reply

      Agreed!

  15. […] Isn't it nice for our police that they seem to have had a long time to prepare for the new Antisocial Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill's passage into law – as long ago as 2010 they were warning a…  […]

  16. joe king January 7, 2014 at 11:51 pm - Reply

    the only way to be free is to stop paying taxes, without it they cant enforce their will on you
    or you could blame the police for enforcing stupid laws , if they wernt so thick they would realise the harm they are doing

  17. joe king January 7, 2014 at 11:52 pm - Reply

    ha ha ha my post is awaiting moderation lmfao,,,,,,,,,,more control and and human rights infringement

    • Mike Sivier January 8, 2014 at 12:01 am - Reply

      Do you mean your post about not paying taxes? It really was waiting for moderation. I have to check everything before it goes up because certain people tried to post up inappropriate material when the blog was set to accept comments from previously-approved commenters automatically.

  18. seachranaidhe1 January 8, 2014 at 9:21 am - Reply

    Reblogged this on seachranaidhe1.

  19. Anti-Traitor January 8, 2014 at 1:38 pm - Reply

    When you cannot have a peaceful protest the only option you have left is Civil War.

  20. Frank January 8, 2014 at 4:10 pm - Reply

    The role of the police (and the judiciary) is no longer to uphold law and order as understood by most people. They’re there to act as a buffer between the “haves” and the “have nots”.

  21. J Wilson January 8, 2014 at 5:26 pm - Reply

    I just signed the Petition on the Government’s website to oppose this proposal, but in case that doesn’t work would everyone reading this page spread the word about this campaign too please. http://you.38degrees.org.uk/p/bill-of-rights

  22. Anonymous January 11, 2014 at 10:48 am - Reply

    When you have a Psychopathic Government in power, what else can you expect?

  23. […] Police State Britain: Tories would arrest you for looking at them in a funny way. […]

  24. Jeffrey Davies November 6, 2024 at 2:29 pm - Reply

    hmmm whot can one say ten years later ha ha not the bloody band. but laughs aside we are now in a government run state we’re talking will see you arrested funny old world were the peasants just allowed them the control of the people’s

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