News

I read a news story last week which has rested on my mind over the weekend. Let me open up.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7646556.stm

This story refers to an Australian citizen in transit through the UK who has been arrested becasue Germany has issued an extradition request, on charges of holocaust denial.

Indeed, Holocaust denial is not a crime in the UK, but the terms of the EU Arrest Warrant apply. I am uneasy about the idea of extraditing someone for something which isn't a crime here when the offence appears to have been committed on the internet, which isn't clearly in a particular jurisdiction.

What I find even more alarming is that it should be held to apply to an Australian, who is not a citizen of the EU.

When powers seek to impose their jurisdiction upon those who live beyond their borders - and be not fooled this is exactly what this is - that is called 'imperialism'.

The same issues in reverse apply to the UK legislation regarding sexual offences committed abroad by UK citizens.

Surely to God there is a case for arguing that one ought not to be made subject to the laws of a country that one has never entered, in which the act was not committed and over whose governance one has no bloody entitlement to pass electoral judgement.

Frankly, if Germany wishes to impose its draconian laws upon the Australians, then it ought not to do so by such ruddy devious means. At least what ex-Chancellor Kohl euphemistically described as "the customary German approach to problems" had the merit of being recognisable for what it was.