Category Archives: civil liberties

Big Brother Watch

Posted on March 9, 2010 | 7 Comments

Those of my readers who are concerned about the ever-advancing power of the state and its agencies (and there are, I can assure you, quite a few) could do worse than bookmark the Big Brother Watch website.

Big Brother Watch’s mission statement is as follows:

Big Brother Watch fights injustice and campaigns to protect our civil liberties and personal freedoms.

The British state has accumulated unprecedented power and the instinct of politicians and bureaucrats is to expand their power base even further into areas unknown in peace time.

Big Brother Watch campaigns to re-establish the balance of power between the state and individuals and families.

We look for the sly, slow seizure of control by the state – of power, of information and of our lives.

We advocate the return of our liberties and freedoms and look to ordinary people to join our cause. 

Regular readers will know that  this blog has long railed against the apparently unbridled proliferation of CCTV cameras, the heavy-handed actions of officious jobsworths, the insidious expansion of the national DNA database and, of course, the unstoppable rise of the healthansafety  industry.

I am therefore delighted at the formation of an organisation dedicated to exposing and countering these sinister and essentially New Labour trends in our society and am equally delighted to add a link to its website.

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Posted in civil liberties, DNA, health and safety, Jobsworths

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Roadmap to our souls

Posted on December 31, 2008 | 1 Comment

surveiilanceCongratulations to the former Director of Public Prosecutions, Sir Ken MacDonald, for his ferocious attack on Government plans to intercept every single electronic communication, whether by telephone or on the internet, that takes place in the UK.

The Guardian informs us that Jacqui Smith will be publishing a consultation next month on proposals to monitor telephone calls, texts, e-mails and chatroom use.  No doubt readers of this blog, among others, will be attracting the attention of the Home Office snoopers if Ms Smith’s plans come to fruition. 

Sir Ken, who is a longstanding critic of the Government’s clinically paranoid approach to security issues (he inveighed heavily earlier this year against the proposals for 42 days detention) has told the Guardian of his concern that the plans for total interception of communications would produce “an unimaginable hell-house of personal private information”, with the Government in possession of a “roadmap to our souls” that would be a “complete readout of every citizen’s life in the most intimate and demeaning detail” : 

“The tendency of the state to seek ever more powers of surveillance over its citizens may be driven by protective zeal. But the notion of total security is a paranoid fantasy which would destroy everything that makes living worthwhile. We must avoid surrendering our freedom as autonomous human beings to such an ugly future. We should make judgments that are compatible with our status as free people.” 

Sir Ken is entirely right, but I doubt whether his criticism will deter the Government, who are hell-bent on monitoring, scrutinising, filing and regulating almost every facet of our existence.  

The cost of the scheme has been estimated at an astonishing £12 billion.  Given our present straitened economic circumstances, one might have thought that Ms Smith would consider it a better application of public funds to spend a smaller sum on a more effective, intelligence-led surveillance programme that would target the terrorists while leaving the law-abiding majority free to continue surfing the net and texting friends without worrying about the virtual presence of Home Office eavesdroppers.  

But that, sadly, is not the way this Government works.

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Posted in civil liberties, Jacqui Smith

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Disgusted, North Wales

Posted on June 12, 2008 | 8 Comments
David Davis’s decision to resign his seat and fight a by-election took most commentators entirely by surprise.

His decision was entirely personal, but his resignation speech, in which he railed against the progressive erosion of liberties under this Government, reflected the views of countless thousands of our fellow-citizens, not only Conservatives.

Today I received the following e-mail, which amply demonstrates the general disgust the Government is generating, even among its own supporters (the sender’s name has been withheld at his own request):

Dear Mr. Jones,

While I am a member of the Labour party, I would like to thank you, as your constituent, for not voting in favour of a 42-day detention period last night.

Despite being a Labour party member, I believe it is right to demonstrate support for the correct decision – hence my email of thanks to you. I respect the right of all MPs to have their own view on such important matters. I strongly disagree with the extended detention period, as unnecessary in the current circumstances.

Regards,

[sgd]

Decent people of all parties and none are revolted by the Government’s heavy-handed, illiberal, meddlesome, intrusive contempt for fundamental civil liberties.

I don’t know whether my correspondent will feel sufficiently alienated to abandon Labour, but if he, as a party member, feels the way he does, how do the mass of the non-aligned British electorate?

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Posted in civil liberties, Labour Party