Far from rebuilding social solidarity, Tony Blair has further rolled it back.
Attaching a criminal label to the most disadvantaged is no solution. These are social problems calling for investment in the rebuilding of institutions that knit communities together.
Detention without trial of people with mental health problems. It is estimated that 600 people a year will be subject to this draconian power on the simple ground that they have a personality disorder and are likely to commit an act of violence in the future. Additionally, the bill will increase doctors' powers to force patients to take medication.
The joint parliamentary committee on human rights has warned that a wide range of people, including sufferers of epilepsy and diabetes, could be subject to compulsory treatment and that psychiatrists are in danger of being turned into guardians of morality by removing safeguards that prevent the The British government, capitulating to US pressure, has persuaded EU partners to accept a deal that would allow individual countries to sign immunity agreements with the US in relation to the new International Criminal Court. Right wing trio Blair, Italian Prime Minister, Berlusconi, and Aznar, Prime Minister of Spain, are now expected to ensure that their countries make such unilateral agreements.
It is only a matter of time before others follow. The US was previously very isolated on this issue and the ICC, a flawed project without US backing, depended on this to salvage any credibility. Once a few major states breach it, blanket US-immunity will be the inevitable outcome.
This is a total U-turn not only on New Labour's avowed previous position, but also on Blair's claim that he would not be Bush's poodle. It makes him not the poodle, but the lamppost being urinated on. It also exposes the lies and double standards behind Labour's backing for the war drive against Iraq and so-called "terrorism". Drastic military action and wholesale assaults on civil liberties are supposedly necessary to uphold justice and the rule of law internationally.
But imagine a criminal court in which a whole category of people are specifically exempt - for instance, whites in South Africa under apartheid - because their role as honest from a trial process? to destroy this court' for a prosecution in the ICC criminal "justice'.
* and the rest of the world. cops might make them victim to malicious prosecutions What has the US state got to worry about, if it is innocent, Amnesty International has denounced Britain's move as a 'betrayal' and Human Rights Watch has described it as 'appeasing those in the Bush administration who are swor
So much for the tactic of supporting doves in the US administration. Claims that there are doves in Labour's leadership capable of restraining Blair are also exposed by Peter Hain's public defence of this move. In a further development, a leading member of Israeli's ruling Likud party has tabled new legislation in the Knesset (parliament) making it a criminal offence to gather evidence
Given US multi-billion dollar support for the Israeli state we could, depending on the outcome of the forthcoming elec tions, see a Western-endorsed three-tier system of globa
* Israel, where it is a crime to campaign for human rights;
* the USA (and presumably, before long, allies like Britain) where war criminals are immune from prosecution;
One law for the rich and powerful and another ...
page 8 of the scan
8. 80Cl •• ce Winter 2002 were, in this order, working-time account,