In the News

Which direction for the UK government's policies on civil liberties?

Mike McCartney

3rd August 2021

You may not agree with the thrust of the writer's arguments, but some good stuff in here

John Harris in the Guardian recently took aim in an opinion piece at Boris Johnson's government, arguing that the now is the perfect time for those in power to curtail civil liberties.

For example, he wrote: "Last week’s announcement of a new “crime reduction plan” was centred around the permanent relaxation of restrictions on “suspicionless” (in other words, often arbitrary) stop and search, which had a clear performative aspect: ministers blithely batting away the fact that black people are a staggering 18 times more likely to be searched than white people under these specific power."

As such it's a good stimulus piece when looking at the civil liberties topic in the British Politics course, or party policy, and I'd contend it's even worth brining in when looking at the effectiveness of Parliament. It would also be handy when looking at the ideologies element, because it has relevance to the theories of conservatism and liberalism.

So well worth cutting out and filing for next term.

The full article is here: https://www.theguardian.com/pr...

Mike McCartney

Mike is an experienced A-Level Politics teacher, author and examiner.

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