Civil liberties and fear: Labour must address both

By Bill Dewison

Since the Labour Party left Downing Street there has been much hand-wringing here on LabourList as to what exactly went wrong. Figures are quoted regularly as to the increases in teachers, the new schools and hospitals that have been built and generally how Labour have improved the lives of everyone in the UK over the past 13 years. So why would the population of the country reject the party?

One answer is fear. Not the media version of fear, the version we have read about where millions apparently now rely on handouts and will vote Labour to keep their Sky television and cigarettes. It’s another type of fear, a real fear that was created by the Labour government in its quest to keep us all wrapped up in cotton wool.

To put this fear into context, there are many who will remember just over 17 years ago when the Provisional Irish Republican Army bombed the gas works in Warrington. Although there was nobody injured in the bombing, PC Mark Toker was shot later whilst investigating a vehicle he believed to be involved with the bombing.

Less than a month later, the IRA struck at the heart of Warrington again and this time claimed the life of a 3 year old boy, Johnathan Ball, and five days later Tim Parry, who was just 12 years old, died in hospital of his injuries. 54 people were injured in this attack and it sent a shockwave through the whole of Warrington. I regularly visit Warrington and I can not look at a litter bin now without thinking of what the IRA did.

Around the country, people can tell you of the atrocities visited upon them by the IRA, not least the people who attended the Conservative Party conference in Brighton back in 1984. Thatcher may be disliked now for what she did whilst in office, but that day back in 1984 where she narrowly escaped death, she did something amazing. Despite the fact that two senior members of her cabinet had been injured, ignoring the fact that she and her husband could have been killed and knowing that the bomb may not have been the only one, she called a press conference in the early hours of the morning to inform the British media that the IRA had not changed a thing, the conference would continue. Much as I look back at Thatcher and think of the damage she caused to the communities I grew up in, I can’t help admiring her grit and determination on that day. I decided then that I wouldn’t let the fear of what could happen change my day to day life.

So, why the history lesson? Well, it highlights that the danger posed by the IRA was significant and real; and no greater than that posed by Islamic Fundamentalists, the people who are blamed for the huge changes we’ve seen over the last decade with regards to the civil liberties enjoyed by the people of Britain.

So why is it that millions of people could live through the constant threat of the IRA in our towns and cities without the need for government to alter our basic freedoms as a nation, but when a threat arises from another networked terror organisation, this time from the middle east and albeit more international, all of a sudden we need to have ID cards and countless anti-terrorism laws which alter the very core of our civil liberties?

The Labour Party above all other political parties is supposed to fight for our civil liberties and for our freedom. The last thing anyone expected when they voted Labour was to be monitored by more CCTV cameras than anywhere else in Europe, to have anti-terrorism laws used against people who were trying to send their children to a better school and I doubt people would have queued at the polling station if they thought an age old conservative idea of tagging the population of Britain with identity cards would become a Labour policy.

When Labour returns to office I believe it needs to remember that fairness, equality and human rights are not just political buzzwords to squeeze into public speeches. They are not words to make a good headline or to rally the troops at party conference. They are the very core of the Labour Party, or they should be.

Thomas Jefferson sums up my feelings on what happened to the Labour Party in the latter half of its administration. He is quoted as saying “When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.” In other words, the government in office can get away with frightening the people of Britain into draconian rules and laws until democracy allows the people its voice to tell that government exactly what it thinks of it all.

I believe the people did speak in the last general election. And the Labour Party – and particularly whoever becomes its new leader – needs to listen very carefully to what the electorate really told Labour.