Blair gets one in the eye from sci-fi

And, in doing so, let's land ourselves with the threat of a seven-year jail stretch under the Terrorism Act 2006, a typically despicable piece of new Labour legislation using the standard Blairite trick of handing the government sweeping powers with a weak disclaimer that "it's OK, because we'll only use them against the evil people."

Let's also have a rousing cheer, then, for Glorifying Terrorism, an anthology featuring some top-notch sci-fi authors who expose the sheer ludicrousness of this Act by dedicating every single story to the glorification of terror.

Science fiction has always been a valuable tool to discuss pointed political issues by stripping them away from vested interests and loaded words such as "zionism" or "Palestine" to examine their essence.

And, once you get past the Bush-Blair black-and-white mindset, terrorism's a multifaceted question worthy of the searching exploration which this book delivers.

Among too many highlights to list, redoubtable Scottish leftie Ken MacLeod envisages a near future in which the hated, never-ending war on terror leads Scots to rewrite old Jacobite anthems with lyrics praising Osama bin Laden.

Charles Stross stumbles upon the minutes from the 2016 conference of a Labour Party driven underground by the laws that it introduced a decade before.

Davin Ireland and Elizabeth Sourbut offer elegant but pointed reminders that sometimes armed resistance is unquestionably justified, while Ian Watson meditates on the connections between power, submission, weakness and violence.

This book won't be banned, of course, nor its authors locked up - they're too respectable and, mostly, too white.

But then, they know that and they know that the Terrorism Act is a racist as well as a stupid law, which is part of the point of this consistently excellent contribution to the fight against our authoritarian government.

Glorifying Terrorism is available for £15 inc P&P through rackstrawpress.nfshost.com or by post from Farah Mendlesohn, 23 Ranelagh Road, London N17 6XY.

JAMES EAGLE