UK Politics

Griffin acquitted: law to be changed

After a jury acquitted BNP leader Nick Griffin and oikish Griffin minion Mark Collett of incitement to racial hatred, Gordon Brown has decided that in future they can, should and will be found guilty, whatever any stupid juries might think, and is going to change the law to make sure this happens. The Times reports that following the acquittal, “Gordon Brown swiftly pledged to bring in tougher powers to raise the chance of convictions in similar cases”.

“Lord Falconer of Thoroton, QC, the Lord Chancellor, last night supported Mr Brown’s calls for reform of religious hatred laws. ‘We should look at them in the light of what has happened because what is being said to young Muslim people of this country is that we as a country are anti-Islam and we have got to demonstrate without compromising freedom that we are not'”.

Well maybe we are, and maybe we aren’t. But I’d be interested to see how exactly one goes about framing a law that (a) demonstrates that we’re not, or if we are stops us from from being allowed to say that we are, and (b) doesn’t compromise freedom. Good luck, Falcon-o.

In other free speech news, the Times also reports that Islamist rappers are being accused of indoctrinating young people via the medium of Song: Islamic hip-hop artists are accused of indoctrinating young against the West, it claims. “Intelligence agencies have identified music as a ‘tool for indoctrination’. The phenomenon began with an American group called Soldiers of Allah. The group has since disbanded but its music and lyrics remain popular on the internet. Other groups in Britain, France and the US have been identified as giving cause for concern”.

“Madeleine Gruen, an American intelligence analyst, highlighted the lyrics of a British group called Blakstone as a possible gateway to extremist politics…She said: ‘The music is very persuasive because it is giving young people ideas, and those ideas are what might motivate someone to become a jihadi'”.

Well that last thing we could possibly want is young people having ideas. But what ideas might they be? Helpfully the Times quotes some of Blakstone’s lyrics:

Yesterday I was dreaming I dreamt of The State we made, a place with purpose and meaning. I saw my people they were smiling not grieving, I saw our kids they were safe they were breathing . . . And no more talk of war and of bombs to drop, under Allah’s Shade and Shield and fearing not. No more bleeding due scheming dogs on thrones, whom plot with foes to spread woes, the stench of rot. And that’s how it’s supposed to be. I look around and all I see today is poverty and misery from systems ruling over me with blasphemy. Their tool, kufur rule it’s a catastrophe

Well it’s hardly Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream, but it’s not exactly a cause for concern either. At least young people aren’t listening to Invokal.