Civil Liberties

One of my big pet hates in life are hypocrites and would rather someone be consistently wrong in my eyes but at least they remain consistent.

In politics, my big pet hate is what appears the consistent attack and threat to Civil Liberties by successive Government's. Under the last Government I was vehemently opposed to ID Cards, ContactPoint, the retention of DNA by police on those that have never been convicted of a crime and the indefinite detention of terror suspects without trial. I have even spoken out in the council chamber against schools in this town which use fingerprint technology for pupils wishing to access school meals or library books.  

The latest Government proposal to store data of our phone calls, emails, social media use and Internet browsing is just plain wrong. This assault in my eyes makes us no better than the likes of China and Iran. I have always believed in the assumption of innocence until proven guilty and do not subscribe to the view that every citizen should be placed under suspicion. I haven't even got going yet on the idea of holding trials in secret.

I suppose we should be thankful that the latest proposed snoopers charter will not form part of the Queen's speech but can only hope that the Government and MP's see 1984 as a novel and not a handbook and that common sense prevails.