Very Draft beginning
Dear Sir,
The recent use of "anti-terror" legislation to freeze Icelandic bank assets in the UK highlights is clear evidence that such laws apply far beyond "terrorism."
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My brain has stopped working... I think we need to make the point that if they can do this... then every member of the FT set is vulnerable to this law... and they should oppose it as much as the rest of us ordinary people who are all vulnerable to this overreach.
Further, the repeated use of those same terror laws to suppress legitimate democratic expression (going back at the very least to October 2003) gives little hope that such overreach will be limited to times of immediate and serious crisis. Even former heads of counter-terrorist units have voiced their concern over the scope and vagueness of some of the terror laws that have been passed throughout the European Union, which should certainly give pause for thought.
As the collapse of the East bloc has shown, a society cannot remain competitive in the globalised world if its citizens must constantly look over their shoulder in fear of the secret police. Thus, thorough revision and re-evaluation of the terror laws that have been passed since Fall 2001 should thus be of the highest priority for all who value a free, open and democratic society.
With the highest regard, [signed, etc.]
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Is the second-to-last sentence too full of bullshit? I tried to put in some of the usual Globollocks lingo that doesn't mean a whole lot but seems to go down well with editors of LTE pages, but I fear that I may have overdone it.
- Jake If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.
