WRITTEN ON January 24th, 2007 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Foundation of Trust, What do we want?
According to a Guardian report about the British Social Attitudes survey (3,000 inrterviews by the National Centre for Social Research):
- Eight in 10 say the authorities should be able to tap the phones of people suspected of involvement in terrorism, open their mail and impose electronic tagging or home curfews
- seven in 10 people think compulsory identity cards for all adults would be “a price worth paying” to reduce the threat of terrorism
- over a third would accept a ban on peaceful protests and demonstration,
- and almost a quarter think torture is a price worth paying.
Put another way, a quarter of us are evil and a third deeply misguided. The road to being a peaceful nation based on respect and justice looks quite a long one. Conor Gearty, professor of human rights law at the London School of Economics and joint author of the report’s civil rights chapter, said:
“The very mention of something being a counter-terrorism measure makes people more willing to contemplate the giving up of their freedoms. It is as though society is in the process of forgetting why past generations thought these freedoms to be so very important.”
5 Responses to “People in Britain will surrender their liberty to fight terrorism”
I’m becoming totally confused about which new measures are required to fight the “war against terrorism”; which to fight “climate change”; which “to protect NHS resources”; and which are simply “to make us better people.”
It’s like a return to childhood: We know that we’ve been naughty because the grown-ups keep telling us so; but we really don’t understand what or when!
I’m proposing that in future, each news item and each government pronouncement be “branded” with the appropriate “category”: Each category will have its special fanfare, logo and colour scheme.
This might give us some hope of understanding the nightly news: At least, until a government minister speaks!
Yes, perhaps we could have easy to recognise icons that say:
- we think you’re a terrorist
- we think you’re a paedophile
- we think you’re the type that carries nail scissors
or
- we think you’re a Real Person, part of a Hard-Working Family
Do you recall http://www.msxnet.org/humour/terror_alert
Maybe this was a sort of segue to your next post about exemplary civil servants – but can I point out an encouraging counter-blast from the DPP (Ken MacDonald) on the potential perils of a “fear-driven legal response to threat”. Headlined in today’s Guardian (URL included in its own box here). Well worth a scan.
The phrase ‘Speak for Britain, Ken!’ came irresistibly to mind.
There seems to me to be a certain irony in this…
Terrorists are trying to defy democracy and to enforce their will by frightening people into giving up their hard won freedoms.
The Government wants to protect democracy and enforce its will by …. errr ….
I think you get a more nuanced picture if you look at the research done as part of the Power Enquiry. See http://www.makeitanissue.org.uk/SoN2006%20summary.pdf
Most still support principle of innocence until proven guilty, most think only SOME civil liberties need be relinquished in the fight against terrorism, a majority think it is important that people are held without charge only for the minimum of time possible.