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What Jack Straw forgot to mention
Does the justice minister need to be reminded what Labour has done to the British constitution?
Henry Porter Perhaps he would like to comment on this list. And perhaps others would like to add to/correct the list, a version of which I keep in my wallet to remind myself what Labour has done to the British constitution and to the liberty of the ordinary person. Labour has restricted the rights to protest and assembly • Protests are banned within 1km of Parliament Square without police permission. (penalties 51 weeks in jail and/or £2500 fine). • Groups may be dispersed under antisocial behaviour laws. • Groups may be dispersed within a designated areas under the terror laws. • New offence under SOCPA of trespass within a designated site. No justification for designation is required. The government's eavesdropping operation • Under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, government agencies may intercept email, internet connections and standard mail without seeking a court's permission (latest figure: 500,000 secret interceptions a year). • Since summer 2007, the government and some 700 agencies have had access to all landline and mobile phone records. No primary legislation. No debate in parliament. The construction of the database state under Labour • Without primary legislation, police introduced a national network of all automatic number recognition cameras. The travel data is stored for two years. • The ID card national identity register will store details of every verification made by an ID card holder and give access to government agencies without knowledge or consent of the private citizen. • ID card enrolment requires every citizen to offer up 49 pieces of personal information to the national database. Heavy and repeated fines for non-compliance. • Children's database - all children's details stored on a central database. Access granted to a wide range of public bodies. • Children's Common Assessment Framework database stores all details of children with problems indefinitely. • The home secretary has announced laws that demand 53 pieces of information for people wishing to travel abroad. No primary legislation was required. Speech crimes • Public order laws have been used to curtail free expression. A man wearing "Bollocks to Blair" on his T-shirt was told to remove it by police. • Race and Religious Hatred Act 2006 bans incitement of hatred on religious grounds. • The justice minister Jack Straw proposes new laws which would ban incitement of hatred for the disabled and on the grounds of a person's sexual orientation. • Terror laws are used to ban freedom of expression in designated areas. Walter Wolfgang was removed from the Labour party conference for heckling Jack Straw. • People searched for wearing slogans on their T shirts or carrying banners. • Protection from Harassment Act 1997 bans the repetition of an act. People prosecuted for repeated email protest. • Terror laws ban the glorification of terrorism which has resulted in the prosecution of a young woman for writing poetry. And in the courts ... • Asbo legislation introduces hearsay evidence which may result in a person being sent to jail. • The Criminal Justice Act 2003 allows prosecution to make an application to be heard without a jury where there is a danger of jury tampering. Fraud trials will be included in this. • Admissibility of a person's bad character, previous convictions and acquittals. • The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 gives the state powers to confiscate assets in circumstances where it does not have enough evidence for prosecution. • Special immigration appeals court hearings are held in secret. Those terror suspects whose cases come before the court are not allowed to know the evidence against them or to be represented by a lawyer of their own choice. • End to the right to silence without inference being drawn by the court. • The Courts and Tribunals Enforcement Act abandons the tradition of an "Englishman's home is his castle" which since 1604 has made breaking into a home by bailiffs illegal. Finally, the terror laws • Terror laws have been used to stop and search ordinary citizens. The current rate is 50,000 per annum. • A maximum of 28 days without charge is allowed under terror legislation. The government has announced plans to extend this to 42 days. • Control orders - effectively indefinite house arrest - were introduced after the Belmarsh decision.
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