Fighting terrorism will take time and effort but Home Office is washing its hands
It’s not every day you find a matter on which the far left and conservative right are in passionate agreement. But then the case of Shamima Begum’s is far from everyday. The decision by the Home Office to strip the woman who left Britain at the age of 15 to join the Isis caliphate of her British citizenship has brought out the best and worst in political debate, from those up in arms at the illiberalism of the decision to those crowing that this young woman will be “left to rot” (though strangely silent on the fate of her
newborn child). And it has absolutely brought out the very worst in the Home Office itself.
This is a clear-cut example of the British government shirking its responsibilities, washing its hands of a difficult situation because the situation requires hard work to resolve.
Of the many objections to Begum’s return, the loudest stem from the idea that she will not face prison, because British sentences are too lenient, or because there is a lack of evidence on which to incarcerate her. There is justification in those fears: plenty of dangerous people have been released back onto the streets and have caused untold horror, Salman Abedi being the most painful example. And Begum, despite her pleas, is dangerous. One need only listen to her own words to see that. But revoking her citizenship doesn’t deal with that problem, it merely foists it onto someone else (in this case, either Syria or Bangladesh).
The Home Office’s decision smacks of pandering and posturing. It’s lazy, illiberal and sets a bad precedent
What the government should be doing is putting the time and effort – much of which will be required – into toughening up our terrorism legislation to deal with those who travelled to join Isis in any capacity. It should have done that years ago, but the task can now wait no longer. It should also be taking the opportunity to look into reforming our laws around treason, to make them more relevant to the present day, something Lord Goldsmith called for as far back as 2008.
The reaction of the public to the question of Begum’s return, and in particular their lack of faith in our justice system, should be a serious concern for the government. In just 10 years, the Ministry of Justice has suffered 40 per cent cuts which has led to dreadful conditions in prisons, miscarriages of justice, and even barristers going on strike. For all our talk of “British values”, our justice system should be prized above all else. It protects rights hard won throughout centuries, that give citizens liberty and fairness. But the sledgehammer of austerity has made it weak and the public no longer believes it can do its job well.
That the government apparently cares so little for justice is reflected in the fact that the Home Office has ignored habeus corpus or any semblence of due process to remove citizenship from someone arbitrarily. That so many of the British public are prepared to see someone expatriated rather than go through our own system of justice is an indictment of where we currently stand.
To me, the Home Office’s decision smacks of pandering and posturing. The politicians haven’t taken the time to get serious on prosecuting or rehabilitating Islamist terrorists and so have decided to just ignore the problem. It’s lazy, illiberal and sets a bad precedent: government doesn’t feel the need to reform a broken system, and so is prepared to remove the rights of a citizen they don’t like to score political points with the public.