The coalition agreement promises, among other things, to:
- Scrap the ID card scheme, the National Identity register, the next generation of biometric passports and the ContactPoint Database.
- End the detention of children for immigration purposes.
- End the retention of innocent people’s DNA on the DNA database.
- Defend trial by jury.
Maybe we won't turn into a Police State after all, which we surely would have done had New Labour won a majority.
7 comments:
I wish you the best of luck.
I guess voting is just trying to decide which party will hit one with the smaller stick ...
Sad but true, I think, John. They're already gearing up for the "cuts" which everyone (in the media/govt) says can't be avoided. Cutting public spending to pay back the financiers who caused the deficit in the first place is how I see it.
But believe me, that ID card scheme was terrifying - not just ID cards but a sophisticated system for monitoring our every move - and I'm just enjoying the feeling of relief that it's been scrapped.
"Cutting public spending to pay back the financiers who caused the deficit in the first place is how I see it." Don't forget the huge profits the financiers will make (think Goldman-Sachs). I guess the "Greece fiasco" (neoliberal shock 'n awe) is coming to a theater near you, as they say. For you, read me. Heaven help us all. Too bad I don't believe in Heaven ...
If only there were a radical liberal or libertarian socialist party .... I'm alternately relieved at announcements which promise an enquiry into torture and extraordinary rendition and worried by moves to cut public services, part-privatise the post office, etc. The current economic system seems to be in a worse mess than anyone's prepared to admit but we keep being told there's no alternative to shoring it up and that we must all make sacrifices to preserve free market capitalism. Of course, the New Labour Party believes that too.
"If only there were a radical liberal or libertarian socialist party .... "
If only indeed! Hearing John McDonnell, the left-wing Labour leadership candidate on TV the other night made me realise how views like that hardly ever appear on TV any more - even though lots of people in the country hold those views.
In many ways Britain has become a police state by increments, not just under NuLabour, but before that under Thatcher and Major. I can't see it being rolled back much under the Cleggeron. And while I very much welcome the scrapping of the ID cards scheme, I don't think that was ever in doubt whatever the outcome of the election had been.
The only difference would have been in presentation; Labour would either have dropped it as quietly as possible or claimed it as a 'cut'.
You may just be interested in this pre-election summary of some rights lost - which of these laws do you think might be repealed? http://freecommonwealth.blogspot.com/2010/05/he-loved-big-brother-now.html
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