Best in the world posted by Richard Seymour

The British state has to be one of the most cynical and mendacious institutions on the planet. The recent release of 12 alleged 'terror suspects' reminded us that just because the Prime Minister tells us that a "a very big plot" has been foiled, this doesn't necessarily make it so. The manipulative invocation of periodic 'terror threats' in this country, from the tanks at Heathrow to the arrested firework insurgents in Portsmouth, are only remotely effective because we have a media that is avidly receptive to anything that smacks of authoritarianism - whatever it takes to police the dangerous classes. And think of the other lies. The lies during the Iranian 'hostage' crisis. The lies about Menezes, the Koyair brothers, and now Ian Tomlinson. I realise I'm not making an incisive sociological point here. It's just that the consistency with which this happens, the absolute predictability of it, is invariably lost in the media fug (notwithstanding Nick Davies' excellent piece in The Guardian today). So I thought it was worth mentioning.

Labels: 'terrorism', british state, civil liberties, ian tomlinson, Jean Charles De Menezes, koyair brothers, media, police brutality, police shooting