Dear UK,
Theresa May today promised to rip human rights into shreds in the name of fighting terrorism – the very terrorism for which she’s at least partially responsible through her gutting of the police service, support of the illegal invasion of Iraq leading to the creation of ISIS, and her continued support of and weapon sales to Saudi Arabia, the number one promoter and financier of Jihadi terrorism.
The right to due process, a right that Theresa may wants to take away from you, is a right that is enshrined in the Magna Carta signed in 1215. For eight hundred years, many monarchs, wars, and political upheavals later, the right of due process remain one of your greatest gifts to human civilization.
It’ll be a tragedy to see those human rights die in their birthplace. But that’s precisely what will happen if, through omission or commission, the Conservatives are re-elected on Thursday.
But you have one final chance to protect those rights and freedoms.
Jeremy Corbyn warned us that gutting the police service would make it hard to prevent terror attacks. He also warned us that the invasion of Iraq would lead to a spiral of misery and conflict leading to terrorism. He warned us about the consequences of aiding and abetting repressive regimes such as Saudi Arabia.
Even if one cynically dismisses Corbyn for being an idealist for wanting to achieve world peace, end poverty and save the planet, it’s worth bearing in mind that the man has risked his own freedom to protect the freedoms of others, such as the time when he was arrested for protesting against apartheid in South Africa.
On Thursday, you get to choose between man who has spent his entire adult life fighting for our fundamental freedoms, and a woman who feels that human rights are obstacles that need to be bulldozed away in posthaste to clear the glorious path to strength and stability.
I hope you chose freedom over fear.
Isn’t the point to just remove the human rights legislations for terror suspects? When you have an enemy who is manipulating human rights and using it as a escape route, isn’t it the intelligent thing to do to remove that avenue of retreat?
The article states in the first line that she wants to “rip human rights into shreds in the name of fighting terrorism”. When in actual fact this is just a regurgitated turn of phrase from the UK tabloids who have all used the word “rip” in their headlines. May said “And if our human rights laws get in the way of doing it, we will change the law so we can do it.” in DIRECT reference to fighting terrorism.
This article is very, very misleading.
Also, when the Magna Carta was signed, they didn’t have the problem of jihadis blowing up parts of London. They might have put a sub-clause into it if they had.
I agree with you that these titles are very dramatic and don’t help what they are actually trying to get at.
But there are SO many other ways of fighting terrorism than taking human rights away from people.
Our human rights are there TO BE in the way, they protect us from governments going out of control. It starts little-by-little “it’ll only affect people we know to be active terrorists” “oh no, trust us we know who they are you don’t need to worry about it” “oh yes, well, they aren’t terrorists per-se but they ARE criminals, trust us!” Are we not in danger of a slippery slope?
Apologies for my not-so-well written answer. I don’t have a lot of time but I’m a bit worried about how much support there is to take our own rights away.
And the Magna Carta was signed in 1215, during the 5th Crusade, so yes we were worried about the Jihadis, as well as more local threats which would absolutely be classed as terrorism these days.
Fuck off. Only humans deserve rights to begin with you maggot. Your children weren’t afforded any at that fucking concert. How many times will you appease this scourge before you get it. And this isn’t about May or Corbyn, it’s about neither of them should continue to appease when your country is very clearly fighting for its soul right now.
I’m sorry, but a electing a man who glorified IRA terrorism is not “defending human rights”.