Well Done Coalition-It's A Start

I've attacked successive governments over the years, especially on the creeping police state that has turned the citizens of the UK into the most spied upon and watched in the world. But credit where it's due, the current coalition government has taken a smallish step in the right direction with the Freedom Bill.

I've blogged before about some of the most pernicious elements of Labour's police state here and here and yes, I would like it to go further and hope it continues, but for now, credit where it's due.

It's easy to be idealistic and criticise because things don't go far enough, and I'm often guilty of that myself. But there is the idealogical world and there is the real world. Ideology informs the politicians who have to adapt it for general consumption. To be too dogmatic about your beliefs only ensures that they never see the light of day. It might give the idealogue a nice warm, self-righteous glow, but achieves absolutely nothing. So I'm glad that the government has done something positive, and am pleased to say so.


Telegraph Online Report.

Independent Safeguarding Authority

It looks like the government are scrapping of New Labour's more oppressive police state quangos, the Independent Safeguarding Authority. Let's hope they do anyway, at the moment it's under review.

It was set up after the Soham murders because Ian Huntley hadn't been found guilty of any offences so passed his police check to work in a school.

Everybody working with 'vulnerable' people was supposed to register, in addition to being vetted by the police. 'Vulnerable' included anybody on prescription drugs. It meant that at least one parent had to register if they were to host a child on a foreign exchange visit. It included parents offering lifts to their childrens' friends, and so on. What it actually was was a further attempt by Labour to get us all onto a database and keep tabs on us.

But what if you were accused of a child related offence but found not guilty in a court of law? The ISA had the power to ignore that and decide you could not register with them anyway, making you unemployable in many cases.

Good riddance to what was, even by Labour standards, an oppressive authoritarian outfit.