The dwindling freedoms that remain

On its way to the USA

[Reprinted from Issues & Views August 13, 2001]

British trust in government officials, from the formerly friendly bobby to the ministers of Parliament, has taken quite a nosedive in recent years. Here, Stephen Robinson in London's Telegraph of July 5 offers some reasons why:

More and more the presumption is against innocence and liberty and in favour of control, whether it be in our drugs laws, Draconian firearms controls, the proliferation of video surveillance in our town centres, or the accumulation and storage of personal information on individuals.

The notion that the police are there to serve members of the public--rather than to harass them or insult their intelligence by handing out puerile pamphlets--is central to a free society. In Britain, we are rapidly losing the habit of liberty, whether it be to hunt, to own a gun, to drive our cars where we wish, or simply to remain unbothered by the state.

In last month's election, the concept of liberty or the limits of state power did not feature at all, and none of the parties tried to make an issue of it, even though the Government is taking giant strides across our freedoms.

The Terrorism Act of 2000 proscribed 21 groups and extended terrorism powers to a much wider variety of activities, and includes controversial "reverse onus" sections that would require a suspect to prove that the holding of a list of, say, ministers was innocent, rather than the prosecution having to prove guilt.

The last Tory government substantially shifted the onus of proof when it allowed juries to draw inferences from a defendant's refusal to answer questions, thus challenging the principle of the right to silence. This Government has vowed to accelerate this process, by limiting the right to trial by jury and abolishing in some murder cases the ancient principle of double jeopardy, by which a defendant cannot be tried twice for the same crime.

It is remarkable to recall how swiftly liberties have been taken and regulation imposed. As recently as 1967, shotgun owners did not need a licence in Britain. Today, even a farmer has to submit himself to all manner of checks to keep one.

No government can be trusted to defend our liberties, because the instinct of politicians is always to accumulate ever greater powers. In an age when those who speak out for liberty are mocked, the individual will have to be very vigilant, and vocal, in defending the dwindling freedoms that remain.

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