This morning Charon QC spoke to me about Geert Wilders, and my view that his exclusion is unlawful – it was a good chance for me to put together all the strands of my analysis, as set out my previous posts, and add yet another thought flowing from the fact, that emerged yesterday, that Wilders seems to have been in the UK only weeks ago and without causing trouble.
I think that seriously undermines any suggestion that his presence or conduct here would threaten our society, at least when you look exclusively at his likely conduct rather than that of others. Even if Jacqui Smith didn’t know he’d been here, the fact is he’s proved he can come here without trouble; it surely cannot be proportionate to exclude him in advance now.
Yes, he may have been charged in Holland since then, or is about to be, but the legislation makes clear that even a conviction would not in itself justify exclusion (see regulation 21(5)(e)) – so it follows that a mere accusation is a weak basis for Jacqui Smith’s decision. And the Home Office’s letter made no reference to that, anyway.
And, by the way, as far as I know, no one’s been arrested or invited to a police station to discuss last night’s showing in the House of Lords of Fitna – a film that, however offensive to some, those who are unbiased enough to watch will find hard to describe as threatening. So can it seriously be suggested that Wilders would commit an offence under section 29E of the Public Order Act by merely being present at the showing?
The more I think about this the more confident my view becomes: if Wilders appeals, I think he’ll win.
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Wilders has a nasty way of equating Islam, the religion, with violent Islamism or Jihadism.
In this he is as bigoted and narrow-minded as religious and other fanatics of the same breed.
The Old Testament is officially part of Judaism and Christian belief, but most Christians and Jews manage to be fairly peace-loving and constructive.
It is understanable, but regrettable that the Netherlands, France and Germany still have to ban nazi symbols like Mein Kampf.
Wouldn’t it be better to let readers bore themselves to death?
Sad as the ideas of Wilders are, he poses no threat to security and to make him responsible for the potential illegal and violent acts of others is totally against the basic principles of Western legal thought.
The Koran is the Written Word of God. What bit of that did you not understand?
Given some of the things that have been said about him (of the “right wing bigot” type), and the efforts which (certainly whenever I’ve listened to him) he makes to deny the charge that he’s against ordinary Muslims, and the state of the libel laws in this country, I suspect if he launched a suit against Miliband, Ahmed and others he’d have a good chance of victory.
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