Religious Hatred
Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2005 12:38 pm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4075442.stm
the UK government are planning to introduce new laws, effectively banning incitement to religious hatred - but everyone's a bit jumpy that the new laws could be used to limit free speech.
there's always been a bizarre thing in the british psyche that says we can trust the government. we can let them introduce harsh laws because we know we can trust them not to fuck about with unjustness.
thing is, we can't trust them. they're lying, conniving, self-serving little arseholes. after the last big anti-war demo, blair was happy to point out that he could have us all nicked if he wanted to (using powers from the criminal justice act).
can't see this going anything but pear-shaped.
so, do you think there should be laws limiting how much you can slag off a particular group of people?
and if you do, do you think those laws should be mangled to protect everybody, or just those stupid and ignorant enough to have subscribed to a mainstream faith?
the UK government are planning to introduce new laws, effectively banning incitement to religious hatred - but everyone's a bit jumpy that the new laws could be used to limit free speech.
there's always been a bizarre thing in the british psyche that says we can trust the government. we can let them introduce harsh laws because we know we can trust them not to fuck about with unjustness.
thing is, we can't trust them. they're lying, conniving, self-serving little arseholes. after the last big anti-war demo, blair was happy to point out that he could have us all nicked if he wanted to (using powers from the criminal justice act).
can't see this going anything but pear-shaped.
so, do you think there should be laws limiting how much you can slag off a particular group of people?
and if you do, do you think those laws should be mangled to protect everybody, or just those stupid and ignorant enough to have subscribed to a mainstream faith?