Sometimes, quite often in fact, I get the feeling while blogging away, that I have become dangerously paranoid. Most people on the left get this feeling from time to time. We are forever warning of the creeping fascism all around us. Then suddenly, you get the unnerving thought that it‘s all in the mind. There is no incipient police state in Britain, just the perpetual dialectic between personal liberties and legitimate state security. The modern neo-fascist state is nothing but a delusional state; the only fascist jack boots are in the mind. Then a little something happens and suddenly it all comes flooding back.

The dangers are real. The State really is malign. And further more, the State is more than prepared to stamp on any dissent, real or imagined. Just consider the following.

On the 14^th May of this year, just one week ago, 40 police, in full riot gear, stormed into a local growing cooperative at 7am and proceeded to terrorise all those present. This is how the conservative local rag described the event;

“Residents of Grow Heathrow were dragged out of bed, some handcuffed and held in rooms until a full one and a half hours search was complete. Everything was upturned and everybody was searched but the police left completely empty handed. All that was to be found was a thriving market garden full of growing vegetables. ‘Grow Heathrow‘, one of the initiatives set up by the Transition Heathrow Group, has provided local residents with a space to start building more sustainable communities after the announcement that the 3^rd runway was dropped and has been extremely well received by the local community for its impact on community welfare.” (Heathrow Villager Issue 742)

Apart from the subversive act of growing vegetables and distributing them free to the community, the group also runs an ‘armed wing‘ – they mend bicycles free of charge. And from personal experience I can tell you they do a damned fine job. When did the raid take place? The day before the Royal Wedding. The message was clear; protest of any kind from any source will not be tolerated.

Immediately, on reading this report, my paranoia about being paranoid evaporated. The danger was real and present. This was a totally illegal police raid with one aim ‘ to intimidate. Two days later under the Olympics Countdown series in the London Evening Standard, under the title ‘Terror police warned not to abuse their powers during the 2012 Games‘, Home affairs editor, Martin Bentham, offered this stark piece.

“Police were today warned not to abuse their counter-terrorism powers during the London Olympics as an official report into the arrest of six street cleaners during the Pope‘s visit was published.”

The report by David Anderson QC‘.. says that although it subsequently emerged that there was ‘no reason‘ to believe there was any plot to kill the Pope, the lack of time available to the police to investigate further meant arresting them was legitimate.

Once again it transpires that the police are free to intimidate and arrest at will even though there was ‘no reason‘ to believe that any plot existed. The report warned that, ”with the London Olympics looming, and similar rumours of terrorist plots likely, police need to exercise restraint to avoid misusing their powers.‘ Obviously the 40 riot police who raided the Grow Heathrow collective did not get a chance to read Anderson‘s report.

We then learn from the report that, ‘Section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000 does not require any specific terrorist offence to be suspected.‘ So there it is in plain English. In order to get yourself arrested all you need be is a critic of the status quo or a Muslim. If you happen to be both expect a knock on your door at any moment. The report adds, ‘Such exceptional powers however require exceptional vigilance in their exercise. It is not lawful to use the power purely out of caution.

‘The blogesphere offers a window of opportunity for critical thought but for how long? To criticise the corporate nature of the Olympic Games might now well constitute an infringement of the Terrorism Act. Was the raid on Grow Heathrow a sign of things to come? Has the ‘war on terror‘ mutated into a war on civil liberties? Was the unlawful killing of Ian Tomlinson by the police just an isolated event? Was the killing of Mendes by the police just a freak accident? Were the illegal police undercover operations in the environmental action groups just the result of a few bad apples?

Even the ‘libertarian‘ right have become alarmed at the erosion of individual freedoms since 9/11 so much so that the likes of Boris Johnson, hardly a standard bearer for the Left, has been moved to warn against the unprecedented growth of authoritarian legislation. ‘Are the political police out of control? The courts have already suggested that police ‘kettling‘ at demonstrations is illegal, yet the police have retorted that they will continue to use this repressive practise. ”

All this repressive policing reminds me of the era of the 1970‘s and 80‘s when the Special Patrol Group were shown to be totally out of control. Who better to turn to in order to capture that moment than the pre-eminent dub poet, Linton Kwesi Johnson. Re- reading his haunting, ‘Reggae fi Peach‘, one cannot help but conclude that those days are fast returning. Did they ever really go away?

Reggae Fi Peach

Everywhere you go it‘s deh talk of the day
Everywhere you go, you hear people say
Dat deh Special Patrol‘ dem a murder-ah, murder-ah
We can‘t let dem get no furder-ah
Deh SPG, dem a murder-ah
We can‘t let dem get no furder-ah
Dem kill Blair Peach deh teacher
Dem kill Blair Peach the dirty bleeders
Blair Peach was an ordinary man
Blair Peach him took a simple stand
‘gainst der fascists and dem wicked plan
So deh beat him till his life was gone
Tho dey kill em and em dead and gone
But his memory lingers on.

Is England becoming a fascist state?
The answer lies at your own gate.
And in the answer lies your fate.