Tim Farron
“With details of reform of counter-terrorism laws unveiled in the House of Commons, today is a proud day for those who cherish the freedoms that we in Britain have enjoyed for centuries and that our ancestors fought and died for. These civil liberties have been chipped away at over recent years, with the fundamental principle of innocent until proven guilty abandoned and the increasing power of the state to spy on its citizens.
There will always be a fine balance to be struck between freedom and security, but the proposals detailed today mark a decisive move away from the paranoid, authoritarian state presided over by Labour. No longer will people who have had no charge brought against them be locked up for 28 days or placed under de facto house arrest. No longer will police be able to indiscriminately stop and search British citizens on a whim. No longer will councils be able to use anti-terrorism powers to snoop on the contents of your bins. And no longer will trainspotters be treated like terrorists for photographing the 13.32 from York to Darlington.
The ridiculous, heavy handed and easily abused powers brought in by the last Labour regime trampled over centuries of British tradition and liberty. That’s why the Liberal Democrats and other civil liberties campaigners fought to prevent them and railed against them once they were imposed. And that’s why we should all be proud of the steps taken by the coalition government today.
These measures will not weaken our country’s defences against the threat of terrorism, quite the opposite in fact. Time and time again Labour’s measures were proven ineffective and counter-productive, antagonising the very communities we need to support in order to tackle the problems of extremism in the UK.
These are not the first measures the government has taken to restore our civil liberties and they won’t be the last. I was proud when Nick Clegg announced an end to the disgraceful and cruel practice of locking up innocent children during the immigration removal process. Under Labour, more than 7,000 children were detained – hundreds for weeks and months on end. In far too many cases this inflicted serious physical and psychological damage.
Ending this horrendous practice was a key Lib Dem manifesto commitment and one that no other party was prepared to make. And when the government unveils its freedom bill, the brainchild of Chris Huhne when he was Lib Dem home affairs spokesperson, we will see huge swaths of Labour’s unnecessary and intrusive lawmaking repealed.
Labour brought in more than 4,300 new laws during its 13 years in power, creating a new offence for virtually every day it spent in power. This government is often judged solely through the prism of the measures it is taking to deal with the deficit and clear up the financial mess Britain found itself in, but it is doing so much more than that. When the next general election rolls round in 2015, Britain will be a more liberal country. These measures are a crucial part of how we get there.”
Read the original article at Comment is Free
Find out more about proposed changes to counter-terror powers
Read Lib Dem peer Lord MacDonald’s review of counter-terror laws