Filed under: Justice
This campaign exposes the ‘straw man’ arguments used by Justice Secretary Jack Straw to dismiss suggestions that the UK is becoming a police state, and draws attention to this government’s massive increase of surveillance on its citizens, its severe restriction of our civil liberties and the expansion of police powers with little or no increase in accountability.
A straw man argument is one where someone misrepresents their opponent’s argument by substituting in its place a “straw man” that is easier to defeat, defeating that straw man and then claiming they have defeated the original argument.
Jack Straw’s use of the term “police state” is itself a ‘straw man’ designed to deflect criticism of this government’s authoritarian policies, because most people do not consider the UK to be a police state in comparison to countries such as North Korea or the former East Germany. Straw also builds up another straw man by saying that “there was no golden age of liberty” but those opposing the government’s measures do not claim there was. Abuses of police power extend into the past far beyond the present government, which is no excuse for what this government has done.
We might not be North Korea, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t heading towards being a police state. Let’s stop this before it gets any worse. To find out more, consider the facts about civil liberties in the UK, discover Straw’s history of using straw men, make your own straw man to publicise the campaign, and take action to tell Jack Straw and the government that this is the last straw man.
