Government Reaction

[drplokta]

So far, I've been pleasantly surprised by the government's reaction to the events of Thursday. Charles Clarke actually admitted that ID cards wouldn't have prevented the attacks, although he did rather blot his copybook by going on to say that he was still in favour of them anyway, and that civil liberties might have to be curtailed. Tony Blair has done rather better, saying that you can't prevent attacks through security measures, but have to address the root causes. He's also said that the government will act with caution and not bring in strict new security laws. So it looks like we're not heading for a UK Patriot Act any time soon.

Comments

[purplecthulhu.livejournal.com]

On 14th September 2001 nobody was talking about the USA PATRIOT act either.

And I think TB did say in his interview that we would have to look at the possibility of curtailing civil liberties 'consistent with the human rights act' - but that gives lots of room for manoever.

It is not the next week that will tell us their true intentions, but then next 6 months to a year. And their record to date suggests that they willl not treat our traditional civil liberties with any respect at all.

[feorag.livejournal.com]

The words 'consistent with the Human Rights Act' mean he can do bugger all, at least in Scotland - we have judges here who take that act very seriously indeed.