Paddy Tipping joins government assault on civil liberties

Once again, Paddy Tipping MP, who has been a firm supporter of the government's massive encroachment on civil liberties, has been using his vote to push through some more legislation.

One particularly worrying example is the clause debated here. By voting against this amendment, Paddy Tipping made it a criminal offence to encourage terrorism. Let's just look at what the implications of that. By that, I mean what it actually makes illegal, and not merely what the government say they intended to make illegal. As Dominic Greave put it so neatly

"it is not the business of Parliament to create law that is discretionary in its application."

In other words, MPs may have a specific target in mind, but laws can be used as easily to apprehend elderly conference delegates as international terrorists.

Professor Robert A. Pape from the University of Chicago has published a book called "Dying to Win : The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism". (You can tell it's a serious piece of scholarship by the colon in the title). Some of the major conclusions of the book include:

a) Suicide bombings are carried out to advance political goals.

b) Suicide bombings have been frequently successful in obtaining concessions from the targeted governments.


So, if you are angry about Iraq/Palestine etc. etc. then suicide bombing is an established way of campaigning about it, and a method with a good chance of success. If that isn't going to encourage the wavering suicide bomber, then I don't know what is. According to the new law, Pape could be looking at 7 years inside for that piece of research. Does Paddy Tipping intend this? If not, then either he hasn't read or understood the legislation that he has voted for.

There are ample examples that expose the misguidedness of this clause - Alan Simpson, another Nottingham MP, cites the example of George Orwell praising those who fought against the fascists in Spain.

Paddy Tipping can perhaps console himself with the fact that he has the support of editorials in the Sun, if not the Mirror.