
Home Attacking Democracy

The Attack On Our Democracy

and the slide to authoritarianism

Campaigns

"Successive laws passed by New Labour have pared down our liberty at an astonishing rate. The right to trial by jury, the right to silence, the right not to be punished until a court has decided that the law has been broken, the right to demonstrate and protest, the presumption of innocence, the right to private communication, the right to travel without surveillance and the details of that journey being retained - all have been curtailed"

Henry Porter in the Observer, April 2006

"I am sorry to tell you: I want us to go further in all these areas."

Tony Blair in a reply to Henry Porter, April 2006

Attacking democracy

The government has used the "war on terror" to justify a range of measures that directly attack our civil liberties.

Under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, senior ministers have the power to introduce any "emergency" regulations . Only the minister needs to be satisfied that the powers are necessary
Under the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005, the Home Secretary can impose "control orders" on any UK citizen, effectively placing any of us under house arrest
The Terrorism Bill 2006 increases the time suspects can be held without charge to 28 days.

New laws making it illegal to "glorify" terrorism mean that anyone who has ever supported violence to remove a regime anywhere in the world could be guilty of a terrorist offence , for instance, supporters of the anti-apartheid movement in the 1980s would have been guilty of a terrorist offence.

Authoritarian Britain

The ID Cards Act ensures the government will be able to track our every movement and activity . It is nothing like the systems used in other European countries, it is more like those used in authoritarian regimes. Despite a manifesto pledge to make the scheme voluntary, you will need an ID card in order to have a passport. Now the Home Office is considering extending the scheme to include children, so the government will be able to track every citizen from birth till death.

Under the SOCPA Act all offences are now arrestable . The police can take us into custody for offences that were previously punishable by fines, such as dropping litter.

The growth of a Database State that will keep track of your every move through society - See the OWOS campaign page here

A national DNA database is being created by stealth. Since 2001, police have been able to keep DNA samples of people who have never been charged with a crime. DNA is already kept for more than 24,000 teenagers and children who have never committed a crime.

Making the slide into authoritarianism as stealthy as possible, the government has hit on the brilliant tactic of slipping attacks on our liberties into innocuous-sounding bills:

Under the Electoral Administration Bill, the government seeks to require further proof of identity (an ID card?) in order to vote . Hiding this in a Bill that the government claim will encourage more people to vote means it wasn't debated as part of the ID Cards Bill the way that linking ID Cards to passports was.
The Road Safety Bill will give police access to insurance data. Isn't the right of the police to know whether or not we are insured - and to be able to require proof of insurance - enough? Why do they need access to the personal information we provide to insurance companies?

The Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill would give ministers the power to amend, repeal or introduce legislation without parliamentary scrutiny . There are safeguards in the Bill, however as the Bill could be applied to itself there would be nothing to stop ministers removing these safeguards.

According to Liberty, the Police and Justice Bill "contains a significant extension of police powers, amounting to summary justice". The Bill will "allow the police and prosecution service to act as investigator, prosecutor and judge, completely removing the courts from the criminial justice process"

"The Bill gives the Home Secretary carte blanche to meddle in the composition of police authorities without having to ask for Parliamentary approval. It gives absolutely no reassurance to those of us who fear the loss of local accountability under the police merger plans.

"The proposal for the police to be sent a list of every passenger on every domestic UK flight is a deeply worrying intrusion into people's private lives. It adds another building block in the construction of surveillance society."

Lynne Featherstone MP, January 2006

Stifling protest

Meanwhile, protest is stifled. Unauthorised protest within 1km of Parliament is now banned - so our elected representatives will not have to listen to the voices of dissent.

2005 - Maya Ann Evans arrested for reading out the names of the British soldiers killed in Iraq outside Downing Street.
2006 - Mark Barrett convicted of 'unlawful protest' in 2006 for holding tea parties in Parliament Square.
March 2006 - Brian Haw arrested "on suspicion of obstructing police" despite having won a High Court battle to continue his Parliament Square vigil.
May 2006 - up to 50 police officers stripped Brian Haw of his placards and banners in an early morning raid in Parliament Square

'Lawful' protestors have been detained.

2005 Labour conference - over 600 protestors, armed with nothing more than placards, leaflets or the word "nonsense", were detained under the terror laws
2005 Labour conference - 82 year old Walter Wolfgang was thrown out of the hall for heckling - police then used powers under the Terrorism Act to prevent his re-entry.
Sept 2005 - Six people arrested on their way to protest against ID Cards on "suspicion of conspiracy to commit criminal damage". In Britain today it seems you can be arrested for dressing in orange boiler suits and carrying a giant ID card.

Under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act, trespassing or protesting on a nuclear or MoD site becomes a terrorist offence .

April 2006 - two grandmothers arrested under anti-terror legislation for protesting outside an American military base