Patrick Simpson

In an article written for The Guardian, Jack Straw – Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary and former Home and Foreign secretary and much more – claims that talk of the UK becoming a police state is daft and that the current government has done more to extend freedom than any before.

They may well have done, but they have also done a lot to curb freedom. For example, it is no longer allowed to protest within a kilometre of parliament – though it’s nice to see liberties are now infringed in metric. Under new Labour, pre-charge detention has risen to 28 days, much longer than in other western democracies. To make the future curbing of freedoms easier, the government also started introducing ID cards. Mr Straw thinks that part of the complaints people have are due to a false memory a golden age of civil liberties and that such an age never existed. Perhaps, but surely it has been better and this? And even if it hasn’t, that is not an excuse not to try and make things better.

Perhaps Mr Straw is speaking only of the current – i.e. Gordon Brown’s -  government. It is hard to tell where governments end and begin when there is no election in between. They have indeed not extended the pre-charge detention period to 42 days, after a defeat in the House of Lords. Mr Straw is himself a member of the House of Commons, the first ever acting Lord Chancellor to be a member. He voted in favour of the extension. The government has largely been occupied with financial matters since then, but as Justice Secretary, he found time to veto the release of the minutes of cabinet meetings leading up to the Iraq war; he was Foreign Secretary at the time.

Of course, rights are never absolute. To quote Mr Straw: Can individual rights ever be restricted in the name of the common good? I believe there are times when it is necessary to impose restrictions on some aspects of individual liberty in the interests of wider security. I agree wholeheartedly. [Our] motives for seeking better protection for citizens from terrorism and crime are hardly ignoble. Probably not. However, I, for one, am not the slightest bit interested in Mr Straws motives; it is his judgement I take issue with. The power of government is limited not only to prevent harm from ill-intentioned people in office, but also because acquiring such an office does not necessarily make someone the absolute prophet of truth. A politician may disagree with his electorate – for right or wrong – and should therefore take full responsibility for his decisions. Mr Straws denies that responsibility by stating that democracy is the ultimate check on executive power and that [people] have the power to vote out administrations which they believe are heavyhanded. Please, Mr Straw, an election is not a referendum on your performance on civil liberties; multiple issues are always at stake. Yes, people who continued to vote for Labour are also to blame, but that in no way relieves Mr Straw of his portion.

If it is democratic validation he wants, why not convince Gordon Brown to finally hold that election? Who knows, maybe parliament will be hung and the Lib Dems will get a say. Chris Huhne for Lord Chancellor! Things can only get better.