A SINISTER
EROSION OF OUR ANCIENT LIBERTIES
*
Daily Mail
COMMENT
[Friday, December
5,2008]
SO the nation which created the
MAGNA CARTA,
invented the modern
PARLIAMENT
and spawned such renowned advocates
MILL
PAINE
and
BURKE
must now look to the
EUROPEAN COURT
to
SAFEGUARD ITS
CIVIL RIGHTS
YESTERDAY the court made absolutely
the right decision, declaring that keeping DNA
samples from people who had NOT been convicted of
any offence was a breach of the
HUMAN RIGHTS CONVENTION.
normally so beloved of the
LABOUR PARTY
[Dare we say
'Hoist with their own petard']
The verdict vindicates the Mail's
long campaign against the terrifying march of
INTRUSIVE AUTHORITARIAN GOVERNMENT
In addition to the DNA database,
millions of
CCTV CAMERAS
make us the world's most
spied-upon-society. Even local councils spy on us as
we empty our dustbins.
the intimate medical records of
50 million people
will be computerised by 2012, and
sensitive details of
11 million children
will soon be stored on the new
ContactPoint database, to which a million public
sector workers may have access.
And , if Home Secretary Jacqui Smith
has her way, every British adult will have an
IDENTITY CARD
linked to a computer holding 49
separate pieces of
PERSONAL and BIOMETRIC
information on THEM.
*
In a week when we have seen
ANTI-TERRORIST POLICE
ransack the parliamentary offices of
an elected
REPRESENTATIVE of the PEOPLE
how can we possibly be confident the
GOVERNMENT
will use the information
RESPONSIBLY
INDEED, when they are not selling
it-disclosing it to unauthorised people, or storing
it
ILLEGALLY
they are losing it.
The greater sadness of all is that it
took a
EUROPEAN COURT RULING
to prove what most people have
instinctively felt for
YEARS:
that
CIVIL LIBERTIES in BRITAIN
are under
THREAT
as never before from an
AUTHORITARIAN GOVERNMENT
which
no longer really believes in the
FREEDOM OF THE
INDIVIDUAL
*
DECEMBER-2008
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