Greens attack anti-terror consensus
The Liberal Democrats and Conservatives have failed to provide effective opposition to the government’s new anti-terror measures, the Greens said today.
In the second day of the Green party’s conference in Lancaster, an emergency motion was passed condemning the new proposals, in particular the plans to deport alleged terrorist sympathisers.
“Conference re-iterates the Green principle that the only way to truly tackle terrorism is to address the root causes of terrorism,” it says.
The London terror attacks on July 7th were followed by a period of political consensus on how to deal with terrorism, much of which still remains.
Both the Tories and the Liberal Democrats have expressed concern about aspects of the government’s proposals, which include introducing a list of ‘unacceptable behaviours’ that could be used to deport or bar foreign nationals from the UK.
But the uneasy truce has held – something the Greens today officially condemned as a failure of the opposition to hold the government to account.
Co-principal speaker Caroline Lucas instead took a no holds barred approach to the issue, criticising the “illiberal and draconian” measures proposed by ministers since the July attacks.
And she suggested that the London bombs were “an entirely predictable response” to Britain’s foreign policy, urging the government to change so it placed “justice and human rights at its heart”.
“The bombs in London were appalling atrocities in which many innocent lives were lost,” she told the conference.
“They were also an entirely predictable response to UK foreign policy over many years, but most particularly to our policy in Iraq.”
Tony Blair has consistently denied that Britain’s military action in Iraq was the direct cause of the London attacks, saying the “evil ideology” that drove terrorists existed long before.
