Guest guest Posted June 12, 2006 Report Share Posted June 12, 2006 New Statesman: Is the terrorist threat to the UK exaggerated? Yes 72.2% No 27.7% COMMENTS Yes Absolutely. When are you, Brits, going to stop falling (and voting!) for the US policy on paranoia? Renato Brandao 8 June 2006 Yes It is another example of the government utilising the politics of fear to justify the further erosion of civil liberties. Chris Black 8 June 2006 No The threat of terror is very real. However, the fear of terrorism and the amplification of its impact by the media cause us far more damage than the original act itself. Peter Davies 8 June 2006 Yes Fear is a tool of bad government and is greatly overused. Jim Dodds 8 June 2006 No No, but our Government's reaction to it is! Instead of removing traditional, and hard won, freedoms, we need to establish some control on who is allowed to settle in our Country and on what terms they can stay. There has never been a vote on whether this country should become multi-racial - I suspect that if it were put to the vote the proposition would be thrown out by a very large majority. If the population of our Country loses its cohesion, we can expect " terrorist " acts and we are reaping the benefits of our " open door " policy! Alan Briggs 8 June 2006 Yes Absolutely. It is exaggerated with a moron government in power in the UK the same as it is in the US and also in Australia. Frans B. Roos 8 June 2006 Yes Canada beat us to the exaggerations this week. Nick Georgiou 8 June 2006 No The UK is becoming prgressively moslem...need i expand? George Koumoullis 8 June 2006 Yes Absolutely. Like Bush, Blair seems to want to keep the population cowed by fear. Presumably he's realised it's the only way he continues to garner support around the country, even when our incompetent intelligence, security and law-enforcement services beat their way round the country, terrorising innocent families on the basis of immensely flimsy " evidence " . Owen Blacker 8 June 2006 Yes I think so, because it's in the interests of Blair and the Pro-war lobby to keep us all afraid of terrorism to justify their wars and their own state terrorism. Garth Carthy 8 June 2006 Yes There's undoubtedly a strong threat (which the Government seems hell bent on making worse), but I'm sure it's exaggerated to try to get us to support the 'war on terror'. Roger Patrick 8 June 2006 Yes Anything that keeps the natives thinking about anything other than this incompetent corrupt administration is useful to New Labour! Peter Tinsley 8 June 2006 Yes The zeitgeist of the early 21st Century, politically, appears to be about the hegemonic control of the population through the use of fear and propaganda. The justification for the invasion or potential invasions of Iraq, Iran, North Korea (and whoever else that does not sign up to the West's spurious definition of democracy) is not based upon sound consultation and argument. It is based upon the systematic creation of fear and hate that enables enough popular support to 'justify' the oligarchies getting away with it. The media is almost entirely complicit. It is obsessed with soundbites and assumptions when it should be informing and liberating. Terrorism is merely another 'moral panic' that suits. It constructs sometimes real but often mythical 'folk devils' that result in trillions being spent on killing as well as human rights and liberty being constantly removed and undermined by legislation. Who has been responsible for more suffering and death - the American and British governments or al-Zarqawi and Bin Laden? Jason Cridland 8 June 2006 © New Statesman 1913 - 2006 http://www.newstatesman.com/nsleadercomments.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 12, 2006 Report Share Posted June 12, 2006 It is the same as here: a convenience to justify changes in public policy...rather like the convenience of the fire in Berlin in 1933. Seriously, with no hyperbole, Bush and his reactions to " the terrorists " , real or exagerrated, have done far more harm to the nation than Bin Laudin or any other terrorist could have ever attempted. The Constitution is in tatters, we live as if we were in a third world economy, and we are subject, now, to warrantless searches and eavsedropping.Our nation endorses the use of terror- ie secret prisons, torture, and denial of basic rights, the rejection of long accepted protocaols suh as the Geneva Convention, etc. We invade other lands unilaterally when it is convenient for us to do so. Basically, thanks to the " reaction to terror " that Busch is proud of, we have become the oppressive and warring nightmare that was the former Soviet Union/ Eastern Bloc. Like calls unto like, and when one picks up the tools of terror, one becomes a terrorist.We have become what we hate, and what we profess to fight. Michael On Behalf Of dar Sunday, June 11, 2006 5:38 PM 9 AltMed UK terrorist threat exaggerated? New Statesman: Is the terrorist threat to the UK exaggerated? Yes 72.2% No 27.7% COMMENTS Yes Absolutely. When are you, Brits, going to stop falling (and voting!) for the US policy on paranoia? Renato Brandao 8 June 2006 Yes It is another example of the government utilising the politics of fear to justify the further erosion of civil liberties. Chris Black 8 June 2006 No The threat of terror is very real. However, the fear of terrorism and the amplification of its impact by the media cause us far more damage than the original act itself. Peter Davies 8 June 2006 Yes Fear is a tool of bad government and is greatly overused. Jim Dodds 8 June 2006 No No, but our Government's reaction to it is! Instead of removing traditional, and hard won, freedoms, we need to establish some control on who is allowed to settle in our Country and on what terms they can stay. There has never been a vote on whether this country should become multi-racial - I suspect that if it were put to the vote the proposition would be thrown out by a very large majority. If the population of our Country loses its cohesion, we can expect " terrorist " acts and we are reaping the benefits of our " open door " policy! Alan Briggs 8 June 2006 Yes Absolutely. It is exaggerated with a moron government in power in the UK the same as it is in the US and also in Australia. Frans B. Roos 8 June 2006 Yes Canada beat us to the exaggerations this week. Nick Georgiou 8 June 2006 No The UK is becoming prgressively moslem...need i expand? George Koumoullis 8 June 2006 Yes Absolutely. Like Bush, Blair seems to want to keep the population cowed by fear. Presumably he's realised it's the only way he continues to garner support around the country, even when our incompetent intelligence, security and law-enforcement services beat their way round the country, terrorising innocent families on the basis of immensely flimsy " evidence " . Owen Blacker 8 June 2006 Yes I think so, because it's in the interests of Blair and the Pro-war lobby to keep us all afraid of terrorism to justify their wars and their own state terrorism. Garth Carthy 8 June 2006 Yes There's undoubtedly a strong threat (which the Government seems hell bent on making worse), but I'm sure it's exaggerated to try to get us to support the 'war on terror'. Roger Patrick 8 June 2006 Yes Anything that keeps the natives thinking about anything other than this incompetent corrupt administration is useful to New Labour! Peter Tinsley 8 June 2006 Yes The zeitgeist of the early 21st Century, politically, appears to be about the hegemonic control of the population through the use of fear and propaganda. The justification for the invasion or potential invasions of Iraq, Iran, North Korea (and whoever else that does not sign up to the West's spurious definition of democracy) is not based upon sound consultation and argument. It is based upon the systematic creation of fear and hate that enables enough popular support to 'justify' the oligarchies getting away with it. The media is almost entirely complicit. It is obsessed with soundbites and assumptions when it should be informing and liberating. Terrorism is merely another 'moral panic' that suits. It constructs sometimes real but often mythical 'folk devils' that result in trillions being spent on killing as well as human rights and liberty being constantly removed and undermined by legislation. Who has been responsible for more suffering and death - the American and British governments or al-Zarqawi and Bin Laden? Jason Cridland 8 June 2006 © New Statesman 1913 - 2006 http://www.newstatesman.com/nsleadercomments.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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