Dear Dr. Vis,
I am writing to you to express my outrage at the government’s attitude to civil liberties. I have on several occasions previously written or spoken to you on this issue, most recently on 19th November last year. Since then, the government has succeeded by the most meretricious cajolery, bribery, and strong-arm tactics in compelling the Commons to pass a number of measures repugnant to civil liberties, not least of which is the extension of the possible pre-charge detention period in terrorism cases to forty-two days.
Both in the run-up to this, and during the subsequent run-up to this pernicious Bill’s appearance in the Lords and the upcoming by-election in Haltemprice and Howden, the government’s attitude to its opponents has been nothing short of despicable. The galloping authoritarianism and arrogance of this government and its members has become such that anyone who questions the iniquities proposed in the name of counter-terrorism seems to be regarded as little better than a terrorist themselves. The most crass and puerile calumnies are routinely levelled at principled defenders of civil liberties, including, most notably, the recent comments made by Andy Burnham. All of this speaks of a government which sees no need to explain itself to the electorate, does not think itself accountable, and has become so enamoured of its own power as to consider anyone disagreeing with it as a potential threat.
The desire to serve, which ministers profess in their speeches, seems to me to be pure hypocrisy when compared with the way in which they discharge their offices. Proposals are regularly brought forward in order to reduce entitlement to state assistance or to aid the encroachment of the private sector in the public services. The criminal occupation of Iraq continues unabated. And in every pronouncement from the Home and Justice Secretaries, a new reason for extending already-considerable state and executive power seems to appear; whether the problem it supposedly combats is real or invented. This government is not, as it should be, a safeguard to freedom, but an active impediment to it.
Yours is a party which introduced numerous positive social measures including the decriminalisation of homosexuality and of abortion, and the abolition of the death penalty, yet these measures seem to have gulled too many into thinking that something is good simply because it is the Labour Party doing it. You must decide whether you wish your party’s legacy to be the creation of a tolerant society with adequate public service provision for all in need, or the final demise of Magna Carta and associated liberties built up during the intervening centuries, and the placing of public services into the rapacious hands of the market.
Yours sincerely,
