A new dawn for civil liberties?

The steady erosion of civil liberties in Britain has been cited in recent years by campaigners as evidence of weaknesses of the UK constitution, or the poor state of our democracy. It was said that Labour seemed to give with one hand, whilst taking with the other. Despite steps in the right direction as a result of the introduction of the European Convention on Human Rights, through the Human Rights Act (HRA) 1998, rights are still not adequately protected since they lack entrenchment in our political system. That civil liberties receive little protection was illustrated in full Technicolor by Blair’s fourfold extension of detention without trial. ASBOs have created a criminal class of innocent civilians. So what of the current government?

It seems that the coalition exhibit the same sort of split personality. Recently I wrote on how the ASBO was to be revamped, rather than ejected. (Tory plans for a Criminal Behaviour Order, may result in a CrimBO becoming as much a “badge of honour” as the ASBO.) Further, the repackaging of control orders has also been criticised as same meat, different gravy by civil libertarians. While on the other side of the coin 28 day detention has been allowed to lapse, and the government’s new freedoms bill has largely been welcomed by campaigners.

According to the Guardian:

Hundreds of thousands of innocent people are to have their DNA profiles deleted from the national police database under the coalition’s flagship civil liberties legislation published on Friday.

The protection of freedoms bill will also regulate the use of CCTV by the police and local authorities for the first time to ensure they are used “proportionately and appropriately”.

Home Office ministers said the legislation was not intended to reduce the estimated 4 million CCTV cameras in use.

The deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, said it was landmark legislation that would restore hard-won civil liberties and result in an “unprecedented rolling back of the state”.

The 146-page bill includes the reform of counter-terrorism legislation, including stop and search powers, the scaling back of local authority surveillance and the vetting and barring criminal record checks system, the end of fingerprinting of children in schools without parental consent, and the repeal of powers to hold serious fraud trials without a jury.

Isabella Sankey, policy director at Liberty, the human rights group, said: “We welcome many aspects of the freedom bill, especially removing innocent people from the DNA database and tightening up stop and search powers. These measures respond to cases on behalf of ordinary Britons in the court of human rights. How ironic that Westminster’s finest spent yesterday pouring bile on that same court.”