Oink: Welcome dear readers of TV in print
Stephen: Welcome all;
Oink: Well, what is it folk have been making a fuss about this week?
Stephen: How about the new Initiative on Terrorists and Terrorist Sympathisers that the Judiciary has thought up. It says: Any suspect has to fess up or prove all his belongings were acquired legally;
Oink: And if he can't
Stephen: if he can't- he's guilty and the State confiscates all his worldly goods;Simple eh?
O: A great new initiative;! Anytime there's a budgetary shortfall, all they have to do is round up a million or so suspects and hey presto: no shortfall!
S: They might even make a profit!
O: That's nothing: I heard that thanks to the War on Terror they're even bringing back Show Trials.
S: But how much longer can the state continue to terrorise its people? Don't you get it? This aint no joke- this is the construction of a police state!
O: My dear Stephen, how mistaken you are. This is no construction it's simply a redecoration. New wallpaper, new bathroom fittings..
S: And its necessary;.why?
O: Can't you see the state is sated on the gratitude of a nation and now looks to its people for a popular expression of mass guilt.
S: But what about human rights and civil liberties? Before, when people were arrested they would be read their rights, and now..
O: And now they are read a list of their belongings;Everything that you do not say will be taken down and used in evidence against you;
S: I'm scared that soon the only criminal sentences issued will be SUSPICIOUS CHARACTER
O: So people will be presumed guilty?
S: Exactly.
O: We have been here before. And what about the people who sell fighters military gear?
S: They're not criminals or terrorist sympathisers! They're entrepreneurs and small businessmen. They prove Russia really has become a Western Capitalist Democracy.
O: And what about people who happen to treat or teach or serve these suspects?
S: I wouldn't want to be a teacher now, or a doctor. Any contact with a suspicious character could be very dangerous for your health
O: So who thought up this Law of Presumed Guilt then?
S: One of the Deputies in the General Prosecutors office.
O: Oh god- them again, where does old Ustinov find em? And where do they look for these suspicious characters?
S: What's it to you?
O: An argument with the in-laws, I thought maybe I could, you know, drop them off there.
S: You mean drop them in it.
O: Well, they've always seemed suspicious to me
S: Oinky my dear dear man, we are A Civilised Society. We cannot allow ourselves to fight terrorism with these barbarous methods!
O: But we could at least check out how these terrorists get their up to date supplies. You know: guns and bombs, gas and semtex, RPGs and so on;
S: When will you learn, dear friend, that there are some questions a Civilised Society prefers not to ask.
..to be continued;
