/diary0003
Civil Liberties under siegeThursday 3 January 2002These are dark days, for civil liberties. Labour, as a Party, has no strong civil rights tradition, although historically many Labour lawyers have played a leading part in the work of LIBERTY (formerly, from 1934 onwards, the National Council of Civil Liberties) Labour’s propensities have traditionally been collectivist in character, rather than individualist, the oblique heritage of trade unions and the early primacy of collective action. The civil rights perspective has been perceived as “liberal” rather than socialist, the province of professional lawyers rather than ordinary people. This represents a real political weakness. There has never been, among Labour Ministers, any heightened sensitivity to the abuse of power by Government, and the current Labour Cabinet is no exception. Labour has too easily presumed that, because it motives are sound, there can be no flaws in its delivery. And the recent record of both Blair Governments has been a disaster, in terms of civil rights. Many thousands of loyal members have been lost to the Party, for this very reason. And an ugly political profile has been consolidated in the public mind. Today, there is renewed Press criticism in the of the Government’s plans, conceived under Jack Straw but confirmed by David Blunkett, to reduce the scope of jury trials, purely as a cost-cutting measure in the administration of justice: see leader in The Guardian. Yesterday, the new Chairman of the Bar Council was on radio, attacking the proposals. |
LIBERTY, of which I am proud to be a full Board member, is also strongly
opposed to the change. That is also my personal position. The cuts would represent
a further step in the professionalisation of the UK state, and the progressive removal
of ordinary citizens from the governance of our society. And I am ashamed that my
Party should have launched this misconceived cost-reduction exercise: given even a
modicum of liberal sensitivity, it would never have got off the ground. Everything
must be done to defeat the plan, at the very least to curtail its destructive effect.
And for the future, this gap in Labour Party thinking must be filled. The collectivism of earlier political generations has given way to a far greater concern with individual freedom, individual self-realisation, individual rights. This territory is no longer the province of “long-haired, sandal-toting, woolly-minded liberals”, as David Blunkett is wont to infer. This new individualism should be central to the New Labour project. The personal insensitivity of Ministers, including the Prime Minister, on human rights issues represents a strategic weakness which the Party must urgently address. With a small group of Labour Party colleagues, I have recently founded the Socialist Civil Liberties Association - SoCLA , with the object of building it up into a new socialist society, alongside the Socialist Health Association , the Socialist and Environmental Resources Association and the Fabian Society to take its rightful place affiliated to the Labour Party. Find out more about SoCLA at our website SoCLA > to Diary Archive Back to today's Home Page COPYRIGHT > The originating content of this website is my own work, and subject to my copyright. But on one condition only, I hereby given my consent to its unrestricted reproduction for any purpose: the condition is that its source is subject to proper acknowledgment, giving my name, my assertion of copyright, and the name of this website as it source, namely > www.warrenevans.net |