Hold up! Before you read on, please read this...

This post was published more than 11 years ago

I keep old posts on the site because I often enjoy reading old content on other people's sites. Not everything that is old is bad. It can be interesting to see how views have changed over time: for example, how my strident teenage views have mellowed and matured.

But given the age of this post, please bear in mind:

• My views might very well have changed in the 11 years since I wrote this post. I have written some very silly things over the years, many of which I find pretty embarrassing today.
• This post might use language in ways which I would now consider highly inappropriate or offensive.
• Factual information might be outdated.
• Links might be broken; embedded material might not appear properly.

Okay. Consider yourself duly warned. Read on...

Tony Blair wants to introduce legislation that will give the police the legal prerogative to stop anyone at any time for questioning, regardless of whether they have, or are suspected of, doing anything wrong. Should we fail to co-operate, we will be charged.

This will remove the right of citizens to go about their lives unhindered by the police. It removes the long-held principle of policing by consent. It fundamentally and irreversibly changes the nature of justice in the UK. It extends a two-tier system of control from prisons to the nation as a whole. Altogether, it just isn’t a good idea.

It’s such a bad idea, that outside of the Reid-Blair partnership, it’s hard to find anyone who supports the idea. Peter Hain – cabinet minister and deputy leadership candidate – has all but come out against it, the Lib Dems are against it, and the Conservatives are leaning in the same direction.

Yet despite the obvious problems with criminalising a nation, this plan has somehow made it to the stage of public consultation. Somehow, there’s a worrying disconnect between the top of government and the people – The government are hell-bent on winning an illogical war on ideology, while the people would quite like to stick with centuries of precedent of how a free country is run.

Gordon Brown has, of course, disappeared, and so cannot comment on this plan. But for the sake of us all, I hope his heads more screwed on than Blair’s, or I just don’t know where this madness will end…