Britain: Blair denounces liberal critics for opposing attacks on democratic rights

The Blair government has undermined the presumption of innocence and the right to trial by jury and, under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act that came into effect in January, has given the police extraordinary powers to arrest and impose punishment on actions never before considered criminal.

Under the guise of the war against terror, police have been given extraordinary powers to shoot to kill, whilst anti-terror legislation enables a cabinet minister to declare a state of emergency and suspend parliament. The provisions of the innocuous-sounding Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill will set precedents allowing the government of the day to routinely bypass parliamentary supervision.

These measures have raised concern amongst some journalists and members of the judiciary who fear that the government is undermining the rule of law and bringing the entire basis of democratic rule into disrepute.

In the last months, Porter has written a number of articles denouncing Blair for allowing the abuses in Guantánamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and the UK’s Belmarsh prison, for the introduction of ID cards and for moving Britain “ever closer to becoming a totalitarian state.”

He also supported the remarks by Lord Steyn, chair of the civil rights group Justice, where the former law lord asked “whether foreign governments have used 9/11 as cover to justify their crackdown on human rights.”

Using the experiences of Nazi Germany, apartheid South Africa and Chile, Steyn warned of the dangers of an elected dictatorship, stating that “History has shown that majority rule and strict adherence to legality is no guarantee against tyranny.”

A striking feature of Blair’s email correspondence with Porter was how the prime minister’s previous justifications for repressive legislation as necessary to combat the terrorist threat were peripheral. Blair declared that “terrorism requires a separate debate” and that he would focus instead on the importance of extraordinary measures to counter anti-social behaviour.

Steyn’s arguments “shows how far out of touch much of the political and legal establishment” is with people’s lives, he wrote. The reality of the twenty-first century was one of “shifting communities, dysfunctional families, globalisation and myriad influences, not all benign, to which our young people are subject.”

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http://wsws.org/articles/2006/apr2006/blai-a28.shtml