The Queens Speech

[Jacques]

So the 'Dangerous Pictures Act' will become part of a larger Criminal Justice Bill



Hopefully the BBC have got it wrong:

"Making it a criminal offence to view images of rape and sexual torture. Offenders would be liable to be jailed for up to three years, even if the images actually featured actors who had given their consent."

View? What happened to possess?

Does this mean if I watch Straw Dogs I would go to prison for three years?

[andy at handiwork]

How, other than further intrusions into our privacy, does the Reverend Blair intend to ascertain if we have been 'viewing'? ISPs will probably be made to keep tabs on us, and the sites we visit.

[Flat_Eric]

Not "distribute". Not even "possess". Merely VIEW !!!!

This is VERY repressive, because a lot of French porn from the '80s that is otherwise very "mainstream" and freely available can be quite mysogenistic, depicting as it occasionally does scenes involving some bird being "raped" - before she inevitably starts to "enjoy it". I even have three or four DVDs myself (Dorcels). And it looks like some of the US gonzo stuff like the "Animal Trainer" and "Trained Teens" series could now also land you in chokey and on the Sex Offenders Register.

Even some mainstream cinema movies ("Salvador" and that one with Jodie Foster spring immediately to mind) contain rape scenes. Are these now to be edited out for UK sale and distribution at the behest of Tony & Gordon's Thought Police? One can only wonder.

The "view" thing is actually quite troubling. And that is a very good question, Andy: Are they also intending to make ISPs monitor what sites people visit and then pass on such info to the Government?

Big Brother strikes again.

- Eric

[andy at handiwork]

When this stupidity, based on very shakey evidence, is 'debated' in parliament, I have no doubt that objectors will be told that 'Of course it is not the intention of the legislation to prosecute any and everybody for viewing, rather it will be used in cases that already include sexual offences.' Anti-stalking legislation was introduced to cover very specific cases then in the news of ex-partners being targetted. The first dozen cases to come before the courts were animal rights demonstraters, not crazed exs. Anti TERRORIST laws are routinely used to stiffle debate and legitimate demonstations, as seen when the police arrest people for wearing anti Blair t-shirts, or elderly hecklers are roughed up by New Labour thugs at conference. This gov has a history of this sort of thing.
Will a classical painting by Rubens of the Rape of the Sabine Women now be illegal to look at? The Rape of Lucretia also? I will not be surprised if when they come to define exactly what is meant by 'extreme and violent pornography' we will have to erase a lot of what we consider pretty mainstream.
Why cant polititians just stay out of private lives?

[Flat_Eric]

andy at handiwork wrote:

>>


It's about control, Andy. And because they think that we all need saving from ourselves.

They think that controlling what we watch and listen to is "for our own good". And they think that they're the best people to judge what's best for us and for society as a whole because they're such a fine, upstanding and incorruptible lot (he says with more than a touch of irony).

The funny thing is, no doubt some of the self-righteous MPs who will rubber-stamp this latest piece of oppressive legislation will afterwards be heading straight off to their favourite high-class West End knocking shop for a bit of the old 'simulated rape' and / or S&M ("that'll cost extra, Sir") - or else themselves dressing up in women's undies prior to being tied up and given a good caning by their favourite dominatrix.

[Jacques]

Remember Stephen Milligan?

[Flat_Eric]

Jacques wrote:

>>


All too well. Tory ("family values") MP discovered dead at home some years ago - dressed in stockings & suspenders with an orange jammed in his mouth.

[Jacques]

New steps to extend police powers to punish porn users:



In short - we're fucked.......

[strictlybroadband]

The government's on a roll, trampling freedom. The problem is that the British public have become the most cowardly people in Europe (too frightened even to confront naughty kids in the street), and politicians have learned to use that fear to justify anything.

Those people who believe in the "war-on-terror" and the "war-on-drugs" - they're part of the problem. If you believe that "ASBOs" are clever, you're part of the problem. Every major move against freedom since Bush was elected has been justified using people's fear of one thing or another.

If you believe that "terrorists" need locking up without trial for 90 days, but then complain about the violent porn laws, you've been suckered. Learn from history - if they can't get you one way, they'll get you another. This country needs a united movement against repression, but at the moment people are still too scared to realise what's really being done to us.