Leading article: A bad Bill heading for oblivion
Monday, 13 October 2008
It is widely predicted that tonight the House of Lords will throw out the Bill extending the time limit for the detention of terror suspects without trial to 42 days. Unelected and unaccountable, the House of Lords seems an aberration in a modern democratic society. But again we are reliant on these ermine-clad throwbacks to achieve what their elected contemporaries in the lower chamber have failed to do: kill a bad Bill.
But as one threat to our liberty evaporates, others grow. Last week, it was revealed that the Government's DNA database had exploded in size: it now contains the details of 4.4 million arrested – and wrongly arrested – citizens. On the same day, another data breach was revealed, concerning the details of 100,000 military personnel. As you read this, the Government mulls the creation of a "super-database", recording all phone calls and emails sent in the UK, apparently unaware that our state cannot maintain the information it already has without losing it.
Ministers and their whipped bankbenchers have fundamentally misapprehended the nature of government. So MPs are satisfied that their electorate can be detained for 42 days without access to the kind of legal redress that has been a touchstone of British justice since the age of the printing press and, though comfortable with identity cards for every citizen, they are outraged when the public seeks to examine the lunatic profligacy of their own parliamentary expenses.
Benjamin Franklin said: "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." But Franklin's condemnation gives too much credit to our legislators whose inspiration was not even "a little temporary safety" but their own jobs.
Any examination of the Government's position reveals not a well-constructed argument but a need to "triangulate" – to paint the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats as "soft" on terror.
As this Bill begins its nose-dive into oblivion, let us reflect on the price paid: a parliamentary Labour Party exposed as craven – too frightened of the whip to stand firm against the creeping surveillance culture that characterises a government bewildered by terrorist threats and the technological possibilities of the 21st century.
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Brown showed us his mean little fascist tendencies when he resurrected this odious Bill. Very few law enforcers or the security services support it, apart for the already discredited Met Commissioner of course. And Jackboot Smith could not even make up her mind how many days to ask for, yet she supports the nonsense. Of course, Brown assures us that this latest clause will only be used in the case of the most dangerous terrorists. Another typical untruth. A couple of days ago government used counter terrorist legislation to impound Iceland’s assets in the UK. The laws also resulted in the arrest of a woman for reading out the names of dead serviceman and women and led to the violent expulsion of an old man from the Labour conference for daring to heckle Jack Straw. Brown has just created another wearer of ermine who will support him: Lord Mandelson of Sleaze
Posted by P Stroud | 13.10.08, 12:20 GMT
I do not mind having an identity card limited to one purpose - debit card, credit card, library card - but I am extremely worried about a super-card that holds masses of personal data in one place. Given that many computer devices (memory sticks, laptops) are portable, the data are no longer safe. Years ago (not many) you had to break into a filing cabinet to get hold of information.
By the way, Errol Flynn is expressing paranoid ideas. Go for the simplest explanation of 11 Sept 01 ("9/11") - Saudi Arabians were responsible.
Posted by David H | 13.10.08, 11:54 GMT
Yes, if anything not strong enough. But when we ask how we got here, it's worth mentioning that the reason we have these fawning time-servers in parliament is that we demanded they have no other business interests. So now we have the worst possible option - professional politicians. They have no independent means, no skills, no business sense, no experience and damn little common sense. But they do know which side of the bread has the butter.
I sincerely hope we can kill off ID cards too. No grandad, they aren't like WWII and there aren't any Nazi hordes waiting in Calais, just the usual garlic vendors. ID cards make no difference to terrorists at all. Time indeed for common sense.
Posted by richard | 13.10.08, 11:45 GMT
I cannot see anything wrong with ID cards. I still have mine from WWII. As a child in the post-war years I had to present it at the Town Hall to collect the family ration books. Without ID card we are throwing our doors open to terrorists and other criminals. Time for a spot of common sense on this one.
Posted by Edmund Burke | 13.10.08, 10:02 GMT
'As this Bill begins its nose-dive into oblivion....'
Don't hold your breath. Buggins Brown won't easily let this go in the suggested direction. The current problems offer him an obvious, surreptitious exit but his record to date implies he won't notice the opportunity.
Posted by m collins | 13.10.08, 08:47 GMT
Gentlemen ... the "creeping surveillance culture" you rightly refer to is an import. It has been imposed upon us by the NeoCon cabal that has seized all the reigns of power in the formerly democratic republic of the USA.
As we should all never tire of saying, the 9-11 outrage was an "inside job" or a "false flag" operation. That was planned & executed by a combination of Americans & Israelis. Arabs were set up to play roles that would support the propaganda campaign, launched when the very first TV interviews in the streets of New York and in TV News Studios were broadcast.
The 7/7 event (used to kill all opposition to the imposition of "creeping surveillance culture" in the UK) also has many unanswered questions. The CCTV footage of Anglo-Pakistani "terrorists" entering tube-stations with back-packs is incorrectly dated & time stamped. Some witnesses speak of explosions coming up, through the floors of carriages!
Something truly stinks about all of this.
Posted by Errol Flynn | 13.10.08, 07:49 GMT
Ermine-clad throwbacks ?
If you refer to the hereditary lords, are you not aware that just 92 remain in the upper house ? and that the rest are appointed on the advice of the prime minister ?
Posted by Michael Mounteney | 13.10.08, 01:20 GMT