DAVID Cameron yesterday signalled his support for severe counter-extremism measures that would see people targeted for their ideas, speeches and thoughts rather than their actions.
The measures, first proposed by Home Secretary Theresa May in March, would see extremist speakers effectively blacklisted.
Television programmes would be vetted for “extremist content” before being broadcast. It could also see ministerial orders to universities and colleges to deny extremist speakers a platform.
Speaking on Radio 4s Today, the Prime Minister said the country would use the “full spectrum of measures” to tackle the “poisonous death cult” that is Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
Cameron told John Humphrys: “This will be the struggle of our generation and we have to fight it with everything we can.”
The Prime Minister said it wasn’t just terrorism the UK was fighting, but extremism.
“Rather like when we were fighting communism in the Cold War it’s a battle of our values and our narrative against their values and their narrative and we have to get that right as well as the military end of the conflict,” he said.
The PM’s approach marks a radical change in government efforts to tackle extremism. The measures see a move away from targeting only violent extremists.
The Queen’s Speech last month already signalled new counter-terrorism legislation that would extend the groups that could be banned from meeting in the UK and see premises that host extremist meetings closed down
The measures met with firm opposition from Cabinet colleagues when first proposed by the Home Secretary.
The then culture secretary, Sajid Javid, said the broadcast measures amounted to censorship and were an unacceptable threat to freedom of speech.
May confirmed on Sunday that a new unit set up to analyse extremism had been set up in the Home Office.
The role of the unit, according to May, was to inform strategy and “government decision-making on matters such as visa applications”.
The unit will grow, she said, and will “inform more and more of what government and the wider public sector does.”
Tory plans to tighten up counter-extremism measures were unsuccessful during the last government as they lacked the support of the Liberal Democrats. Since being returned with a majority in May’s general election, the Home Secretary has wasted no time in seeing the measures reintroduced.
In a speech in March, May said the measures would “make sure nobody unwittingly lends legitimacy or credibility to extremists or extremist organisations and it will make very clear that government should engage with people directly and through their elected representatives — not just through often self-appointed and unrepresentative community leaders”.
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