Sunak’s extremism plans could criminalise supporters of Welsh and Scottish independence
Tory leadership hopeful Rishi Sunak has been warned that plans to treat those who “vilify” Britain as extremists could criminalise supporters of Scottish and Welsh independence.
The plans floated earlier today included widening the “definition of extremism to include people who vilify the country”.
According to the Telegraph newspaper, “sources in the Sunak camp said he believed extremists did not just want to attack the UK’s values but also the country’s very existence”.
Rishi Sunak pledged to focus on “rooting out those who are vocal in their hatred of our country”.
independence campaigners
Dr Maria Norris, assistant professor in international relations at Coventry University, told The Scottish National the plans were an attack on independence campaigners.
“That is very, very telling as those who are arguing for and campaigning for Scottish independence or Welsh independence or Irish reunification, they do want the United Kingdom to stop existing as it currently is,” she said.
“So is this going to be a form of extremism as well?”
“I have been researching UK counter-terrorism for decades, I am an expert on terrorism and extremism and this is not something you see from Islamic terrorism.
“They are not attacking the UK’s right to exist or anything like that, the whole thing about attacking the country’s very existence – that is about separatism and independence, so it is a very deliberate inclusion.
“It is an attack, really, on those that are campaigning for independence.” she added.
Counter-terrorism chief Sir Peter Fahy, who was also chief constable of Greater Manchester police, told The Guardian that “vilification” could be far too broad a brush to define extremism.
“The widening of Prevent could damage its credibility and reputation. It makes it more about people’s thoughts and opinions.
“It is straying into thought crimes and political opinions.
“Political opposition is not where police should be, it is those who pose a serious threat and risk of violence, not those opposed to political systems.”
Rishi Sunak’s new policy announcement comes as he and leadership rival Liz Truss are set to conduct the latest in a string of hustings in Cardiff today.
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Every time he, or that other idiot Truss, make a statement, we look more and more like 1930s Munich and the rise of the Nazi party. Even wanting to run ones own country is on the verge of being declared a crime. This lurch to the ultra right in England is gaining momentum by the hour.
Unfortunately, they have plenty of support here in Wales,
Plenty? They are an impotent crowd, huddled together in the Anglo settlements in the Vale and Borderlands “slamming” others in tweets and stabbing each other in the back to get some Hunger Games funding from their incompetent political masters in Mordor
Onid ai Saunders Lewis a ddywedodd nad oes ond un ffordd yn arwain at y Gymru Rydd, a’r ffordd honno yn syth drwy garchardai Lloegr?
The only extremists are within the right wing Tory party. Their extreme, English nationalist, brexit ideology is what will finally see the end of the Union and no matter how hard they try to prevent it by calling us all criminals.
Tax avoiding Plutocrat Rishy Sunak wants an authoritarian state where being proud to be Welsh or Scottish is frowned upon. And soon it will be made illegal to be a member of political party or campaign group supporting Welsh & Scottish independence under this English fascist regime. Add untrustworthy adulteress & political chameleon Liz Truss’s hostile attitude towards a second Scottish independence referendum and more devolution to Wales, can only widen the cracks further hastening the demise of this false United Kingdom. Democracy, freedom itself, is now dead under this cretinous Conservative party. #YesCymru 🏴 #Freedom 🏴 #Ymlaen 🏴 #UnionismIsDead… Read more »
Its raging brit nats like him and truss who are the extremists and who should be criminalised!
Rushi vilifies OUR country Cymru/Wales, so he and his supporters are extremist terrorists, to be treated as we so wish.
Would this also make the Conservative party extremist?
My dad was a miner. I remember Thatcher and her minions calling him and his fellows “the enemy within”. This was just one of any number of hateful slurs the Toaridhe have used over the years when pointing the unthinking morass of morons at the new designated scapegoat for Toaridhe incompetence. Nobody was above their grouphate. Miners, Firemen, Paramedics, Labour voters, gypsies, immigrants, refugees, transpeople, Muslims, young people, universities, students, brown people, Irish people, foreign people, people who worship the same god slightly differently to them. All of these have been genuinely hatebombed by the Toaridhe over the years. So… Read more »
It doesn’t concern me that Sunak might actually win and implement this policy. It’s been clear for a long time that Truss was always going to be the next tory leader.
What concerns me is that Truss’ side will guage the reaction to this, and if it goes down well with a strategically important section of the membership, try to outdo it with something even worse.
Traitors, extremists, hang ’em and flog ’em.
Have a look at Guardian piece on the militarisation of the police and border force and watch out for detainment camps looking for a home in Wales…Portmeirion could be requisitioned…remember the Prisoner series on TV…