Saturday, November 03, 2007


Taking Liberties..

Quick catalogue of New Labour's record:


- Internment without trial for non-citizens suspected of terrorist links

- Retrial of those who have been aquitted, thus eroding the double jeopardy principle

- Attacks on the indepedence of the judiciary

- Cuts to legal aid

- Placing previous convictions before juries, lowering burden of proof (ASBOs)

- Special punishments for the poor, neighbourhood curfews

- Introduction of ID cards, so that people can be monitored at all times

- Indeterminate sentences


Blair called it an historic shift from "how we protect the accused from the transgressions of the state and police" to how we protect the "majority from the dangerous and irresponsible minority".

The basis of our current system is absolutely nothing to do with that, the question of protection of citizens from the state is open to debate, and there certainly should be safeguards against the conviction of innocent men and women, but to suggest that the protection of actual 'transgressors' is the basis of our current system is nonsense!

No comments: