No charges were ever brought against Mr Damian Green MP, yet Jacqui Smith wants to hold onto his DNA sample for six years 'in case he offends again'. And to ensure that not only Damian Green but every MP in the House is denied the chance to have a say on this, she's proposing to use a Statutory Instrument.
OK, so you take a borderline fascist idea that will give the state near total surveillance over citizens lives, you plan to pump billions of tax payer money into this scheme, you try every trick in the book to bring it in through the backdoor, all to the publics' anger, as well as opposition from both Tories and the Lib Dems, and then you find that the ECHR has decided it's illegal. It should be dead, right? No, what happens is this:
Yesterday the criticism mounted as the Home Office admitted it plans to rush the reforms through Parliament using a 'statutory instrument' which will be rubber-stamped following 90 minutes of discussion by a Labour-dominated committee, with no debate or vote in the House of Commons
Ya hoo. Or, you could scrap the whole thing. Ever consider that? No? Well, at the very least do what Strasbourg ruled you should do and stop taking the DNA of people cleared of their charges. The EU may be a load of rubbish, but you guys support it, so follow its rules.
Miss Smith's officials sparked further anger by saying the procedure was necessary in order to comply with the Strasbourg ruling as quickly as possible - effectively claiming there was not enough time for MPs to debate the matter.
Oh, you are, are you?
But the Home Secretary sparked outrage over so-called 'Big Brother' powers earlier this month when she unveiled new rules, which will still allow the police to keep innocent people on the database for six years, or 12 years if they were arrested for but cleared of a serious sexual or violent offence
Not good enough. The last part, in italics, is doubly insulting. So, if you didn't commit a minor offence, you're "only" going to have your DNA taken for 6 years. But, if you didn't commit a sexual/violent offence, that makes you more guilty than a person who didn't commit a minor offence. Once you've been charged, it's assumed you're guilty, even if the courts disagree.
Even the tabloid papers have a higher burden of proof, what with their history of demonising paedophiles and murderers before they've even set foot in court. We now receive punishment based on the seriousness of non-existent crimes. This is an insane, abusive move, that completely bypasses Parliament.
The LPUK has not one but two solutions to prevent this sort of abuse of the law- we will scrap the proposed database, along with ID cards, but will also review the statutory instrument system.
Editorial note:
The utter moral bankruptcy of this government is beyond belief and yet my own MP L Featherstone has no idea of how many statutory instruments have been passed in her time as an MP. If she doesn't know whats the bet that other MPs dont have a clue? Especially those that disappear once Mick has had his 35 second speech the other day look at them scurrying out as if they were doing something useful when they could have participated in the Foreign Office stuff
Hat tip to Raedwald for the pic and the first paragraph and the Libertarian party members blog namely Martin for the rest.
Frankly I think the government now is a cherry short of a schwarzwalderkirschtorte
I'm also disgusted that if you are arrested but not charged or convicted, the police can hang on to your DNA and keep the arrest on your record until you are 100 years old.
ReplyDeleteThis recently happened to my 14 year old daughter. She has now a record until she is 100.