British liberty Pt. V

We will no longer have the right to remain silent:

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair plans to push through a new anti-terrorism law before he steps down next month giving "wartime" powers to police to stop and question people, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

The "stop and question" power would enable police to interrogate people about who they are, where they have been and where they were going, The Sunday Times said. Police would not need to suspect a crime had taken place.

If suspects failed to stop or refused to answer questions, they could be charged with a crime and fined, The Sunday Times said. Police already have the power to stop and search people but have no right to ask them their identity and movements.

Wow. Wartime powers? Did I fail to notice we're at war? Or is it just the permanent, global-war-on-terror, Orwellian kind of war?

So now this, in a supposed liberal democracy. Has it ever been more obvious that a government needs a constitution to keep it in check? Isn't it bad enough that they can stop you on the street without cause and search your pockets? Isn't it bad enough that they'll soon have portable fingerprint scanners to identify us? And how about shouting (and otherwise) CCTV cameras to watch us and give us orders, and biometric ID cards, and a huge national DNA database, and computerized tracking of vehicles and public transport passengers?

And now a policeman will be able to spot-interrogate you, and if you don't give him the answers he (presumably) expects to hear, you can be prosecuted -- and don't forget you'll be giving a DNA sample down at the station, too.

Does anyone think that a terrorist, on his way to a terrorist meeting or whatever, is going to confess because he's afraid of a fine? Of course not. This law is aimed at the rest of us.

Okay, so maybe we can vote. Aside from that, has a human population the size of this country ever been so watched and controlled? I guess we just have to hope we never elect anyone with a hidden totalitarian streak.