Required reading, especially if you think it can't happen here
Don't know about you, but this political insanity in England scares me shitless.
(highlights added.)
Today marks the return of the Commons, and at the top of our MPs' list of somewhat demented legislation is the criminal justice and immigration bill: at 3.30pm they sit down to ban the dark side of human nature. Outside, Tony Benn and his colleagues will be marching, urging MPs to Stop the War - hear hear to that - but inside the MPs are signing up to a new one: The War on ... well, you can take your pick from the terms used by various Labour ministers and MPs - "violent pornography", "weird stuff", "degeneracy", "perversions", "Nasty kinkiness" kinda sums it up. So, TWONK seeks to eliminate the possession and distribution of visual representations of so-called extreme pornography, the legislation being ambiguous enough to ban practically any S&M imagery in fact, as well as a host of mainstream movies. Now ministers will claim that TWONK is a war on violent pornography, not Hitchcock, or the lifestyle that might generate such imagery, but that's cobblers. What it is, is another unwinnable, unendable, unjustifiable and unnecessary war on a target that just happened to pop up, and satisfied a political need for the appearance of tough action.
Never mind that the government itself admits that there is no evidence that sadomasochistic porn causes any harm. Never mind that the government finds itself in the bizarre position of criminalising images of consensual activity, while claiming to be acting to prevent non-consensual harm, and never mind that public consultation has shown overwhelming opposition to the measures. The government's mind is made up....
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