“Terror Without Limit.”

According to Tony Blair, Britain faces “terror without limit.”. So, here it is; the politics of fear laid bare. The draconian erosions of our liberties are all for our own good. As Charles Kennedy pointed out in the commons today, the government’s reaction to a threat is an increased authoritarian agenda.

Let’s get a little perspective here and put aside for a moment the hysterical rants of Blair and Clarke. Britain has faced terrorist threats before. The gunpowder plot was a terrorist threat – perhaps the government would like to return to the torture and execution methods used by Sir Robert Cecil in the wake of that particular atrocity? Then, of course there was a near three decade offensive by the IRA. Those of us who are old enough will recall the warnings to be alert and report suspicious packages. Even when they nearly wiped out the cabinet at the Conservative Party conference, our basic liberties remained intact.

Yet, today, we are told that the threat is so dire that we must sacrifice our liberties and fall craven at the feet of the terrorists, so fearful and cowed are we by this threat.

What utter nonsense! The threat is different, yes. Suicide bombers present a different and difficult threat to deal with – but the likelihood of an attack is similar to what it has always been,. Someone, somewhere, will consider it sufficiently beneficial to a cause to warrant exploding a bomb somewhere in mainland Britain. Despite the rhetoric about preventing it before it happens, it will happen. Denying British citizens their freedom will not stop it – all it will do is grant the government and its legions of agencies access to every crevice of our private lives for the sole purpose of control.

And, that, is what this is all about. The politics of fear used throughout the generations as a control measure.