Stop and rethink


From the Guardian editorial:

Most hardened lags coming to the end of their stretch inside would be minded to keep their heads down. Not Tony Blair. Ten years into his term, the prime minister yesterday came up with some fresh ideas for tackling the threat of terrorism. They include giving police officers in the UK the power to stop and interrogate individuals about their identity and their movements. Those questioned need not be suspected of any crime, yet failure to comply could land them with a criminal conviction and a fine of £5,000.

New powers they may be, but the thinking behind them is well-worn. For Mr Blair further erosion of individual freedoms is a fair trade for greater security against the threat of terrorism. “We have chosen as a society to put the civil liberties of the suspect … first,” he wrote yesterday and warned: “This extremism, operating the world over, is not like anything we have faced before. It needs to be confronted with every means at our disposal.” Few dispute that the terrorist threat in this country is formidable: the Crevice trial, which concluded last month, gave us more evidence of that. What is doubtful is the efficacy of Mr Blair’s prescription. The Crevice investigation was intelligence-led; giving police arbitrary powers to stop whoever they want, without even the fig leaf of “reasonable suspicion” they currently require, could poison community relations and so choke off crucial sources of intelligence. Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 already allows for widespread use of stop and search. These powers have been useful in shaking down youths with knives and disrupting anti-war demos – even in getting 82-year-old Walter Wolfgang ejected from a Labour party conference. But they have not resulted in a single terrorist conviction. Extending them further, so that police can ask whoever they want to prove their identity, dovetails all too well with the introduction of ID cards further down the tracks and looks the very definition of draconian.


0 thoughts on “Stop and rethink

  • David Begley

    Nobody will ever get this idiot to change his mind,don,t forget he is in direct contact wih God,the same as the idiot running the U.S.A.
    These draconian powers given to the police might be useful if they actually resulted in something,but as pointed out in the Guardian Editorial they are a precursor in getting the general population to accept the idea of I.D cards.
    Still if Blair is such a great believer in God,hopefully he will rot in hell as punishment for all the lies he has told over the last ten years!