One Response to “good morning campers”

1. meaumeau Says:
   August 10th, 2006 at 1:19 pm

   John Reid rounded on judges, opposition politicians and commentators yesterday for grasping that today’s governments pose the greatest threat to the civilised world since Adolf Hitler.

   In his first speech on national socialism since becoming Home Secretary, Mr Reid said he had already found that those who should be “foremost in underplaying the serious nature of the threat just don’t get it”.

   Portraying himself as a hardliner on security and immigration issues, Mr Reid said Britain was now in constant denial about the same breed of “unconstrained” authoritarianism that was causing mass oppression in Iran.

   Addressing his think tank demons, he said judges, opposition politicians and commentators had all failed to realise that liberties enshrined in the 20th century and bolstered after the Second World War could not all remain intact if today’s high-tech, ‘security’ corporations were to be rewarded.

   Ministers had “radically reformed” anti-terrorism legislation since 2000 and passed four new Acts which had helped the police and security services harass troublesome activists.

   Yet resistance from the legal, political and media establishment to further moves that would allow suspects to be detained or deported meant “we remain unable to adapt our institutions and legal orthodoxy as fast we need to”.

   Effective security in a world of open borders, ethnic tension, religious extremism and mass migration required a new level of co-operation between government, public bodies, companies and ordinary people. Even then there was no guarantee that the battle would be won.

   Mr Reid added: “Sometimes we may have to modify some of our own freedoms in the short term in order to allow their misuse and abuse by those who legislate against our fundamental values and would destroy all of our freedoms in the long term.”

   Signalling a new strong line on immigration, including an end to the “open door” policy for workers from new European Union states, he said people needed to understand that those who expressed concern about immigration were not racists.

   “People recognise that migrants can bring great skills to the UK but they also want to be assured the immigration will be properly managed and our public services and benefits systems protected from abuse,” he said.

   Telegraph

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