Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Yeah That'll Work

Alan Johnson is responding to the Islamist march through Wooten Bassett in traditional New Labour fashion- he's banning the groups responsible. Not only is this highly authoritarian it is also completely pointless, as the article explaining the background to the ban explains:
The group is already proscribed under two other names – al-Ghurabaa and the Saved Sect or the Saviour Sect.

So they were banned before , but reformed under a different name which is exactly what they will do again. If the purpose is to marginalise the group then it won't work but if the purpose is to make Alan Johnson seem tough then it may well be effective.

4 comments:

Mark Wadsworth said...

Apparently there was never going to be a march, they hadn't notified the local coppers (or whatever it is you have to do). T'would have been hilarious to see half a dozen beardies wander down the road while the locals throw rotting veg at them.

Mark said...

'highly authoritarian' is spot-on; banning a named group just invites their reformation under a different banner. This is a Nulab knee-jerk, and appearance over substance, at its worst.

Anjem Choudhary's intention at Wootton Bassett, as Mark W suggests, was to march thru the town carrying mock coffins. This would have been resulted in a highly provocative breach of the peace- had it occurred. However I doubt if his group would have managed the logistics of getting the mock coffins together. And as for finding hardy volunteers to carry them thru the icy streets of Wootton Bassett in midwinter- forget it! His lot are essentially armchair jihadists, not unlike the neocon 'laptop bombardiers' to their right.

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Senior said...

Alan Johnson doesn't appear tough to me. If he wanted to do that, he should have got the authorities to investigate Anjem Choudary and his links, and prosecute him. This government is soft on Islamic extremists. Islamic extremism isn't a crime, and those who were found guilty of public order offences in Luton last year didn't even get sent to jail.