Opinion - Magnus Linklater Times Online

Magnus Linklater of The Times Online is also condeming New Labour's fascist tendency writing about The dawning of jackboot justice, a good read bringing to light stories of the little people that New Labours New Justice crushes underfoot, that would never have been heard of without the old tree media, such as

Lofti Raissi, an Algerian pilot who was being watched by the FBI as a possible suspect in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. The request to Scotland Yard was to monitor him “discreetly”. Instead, police mounted a dawn raid, put a gun to his head and led him naked to a waiting police car. It turns out he was innocent

or a refugee family

the Vucaj family from Kosovo, who have been living in Glasgow for the past five years and have been fighting deportation, were arrested and removed to a detention centre near Luton. They were not just removed, they were manhandled. Arrested by immigration officers in a dawn raid, the father and his eldest son were handcuffed, the children taken out of the house in their pyjamas, the mother given no opportunity to collect her possessions.

There is no possible justification for this brand of officially approved brutality. The Vucaj family had been model citizens during their time in Glasgow, the children popular and successful at school. The least they might have expected was a dignified departure.

But no, better a made for TV spectacular (litterally in some of the cases it mentions) against soft targets, while anybody that might actually pose a threat is left well alone. Which seems to sum up New Justice quite well, pick on soft targets that are generally law abiding, then arrest them in the most public and spectacular way possible. Maximum PR value for minimum risk, if they turn out innocent then quietly release them to what remains of their shattered lives as quietly as possible. Don't bother with the real trouble makers, they might resist and anyway that would mean you have to go through the hastle of a trial (Blair hasn't yet got rid of that little problem completely).