Yet it behaves as if its days are numbered. A private individual acting out his fearful fantasies in this fashion would be sent to a psychiatrist and treated to a little electroconvulsive therapy. Governments, unchecked by constitutional safeguards, create their own reality before which, the subject who wishes to stay out of trouble is expected to genuflect towards an institutionalised insanity. A key item in the Blair Plan for Deconstruction of Civil Liberties is The Terrorism Bill . The mere threat to use direct action as a form of protest, regardless of the surrounding circumstances, is to be outlawed.
Terrorism is essentially a political act.
So suspect religious groups are now declared to be political to fit the new definition. So are workers involved in industrial disputes. The second rank of new criminals under this law will be those who fail to report their suspicions about anyone allegedly involved in the new terrorism. Historians of the Third Reich might just find common ground here, between societies that expect family members to inform on one another in the interests of State security. Clause 18 proposes a five-year sentence for anyone failing to report information received professionally, that may relate to a terrorist act.