Extremism crackdown promised in new Conservative manifesto

By Abi Simpson

The Conservative Party have announced they will include stricter rules on extremist groups in their 2015 manifesto.

Their plans include banning orders and ‘extreme disruption’ orders on organisations thought to be linked with extremist groups. 

Home Secretary Theresa May was among the high profile speakers, on day three of the conference.  She said that ‘British values will prevail in the battle against extremists. 

Mrs May feels that access to communications data is vital in cracking down on extremist groups such as Islamic State (IS).  The data would include details of who is speaking and when they’re doing it, the information would not include the content of the conversation.

The current issue is that the government are seen to only attack those who are directly linked to violence.  The real problem lies however, in those that are involved in extremist groups but appear to be compatible with the British way of life.  It’s these groups that are radicalising impressionable minds and leading our young people abroad to war zones, such as Syria.  It’s believed that nearly 500 jihadists have travelled to Iraq and Syria, from the UK, already.  These groups are the ones that will be challenged under the Conservatives new proposals.

Currently there is a statutory duty for public bodies to have a counter-radicalisation strategy.  The new legislation will enhance powers of the Charity Commission to close down radical organisations which use charities as a front.

Improvements will also be made to the current process which restricts extremists from obtaining positions of any significant authority, such as teaching in schools. 

At the moment organisations can only be banned if there is evidence that directly links them to terrorism.  The new rules will allow banning orders to be imposed if the government ‘reasonably believes’ they pose a threat to the public.  The ban would mean an immediate review by the High Court, which would make membership or funding of the organisation a criminal offence. 

This would be a good start to tackling the problem we have in Britain of extremist groups hiding in our system.  We are too accommodating at the moment, and stricter rules do need to be put in place.  Whether that is by voting Conservative and seeing the above put into place or another suitable method, it’s unclear.  But the one thing that is clear, is that something needs to be done, and it needs to be done sooner rather than later.