Civil liberties arguments are not so much wrong just made for a different age. Tony Blair, Prime Minister By 2005 Blair had used fear of terrorism, crime and anti-social behaviour at home to justify tight state controls and limit civil liberties. The UK soon had more CCTV cameras on the public street than any other country in the West. Police were encouraged to get our DNA by any means. The labour governments passed more laws, created more 'crimes', than any others in British history. RIPA allowed huge numbers of minor civil servants to spy on our lives. State data bases recorded all aspects of our lives. Mental illness, learning disability and social inadequacy were now crimes and treated as such. The lone mother and her 'menace' children became public enemy no. 1. It became patriotic to use low level sonic weapons to force children to move on in public places. The Taser became widespread in police forces and vulnerable people died. The right to protest in public was attacked, misusing the terrorism laws. At the same time it became clear that MPs were exploiting the parlimentary expenses system to line their pockets and even ex ministers were discovered pedling influence and access to legislative ammendments. For the first time in 350 years MPs and Lords were sacked and the House of Commons speaker was obliged to resign. The new Coalition government promised to reverse all this state interference, wrongdoing and snooping but instead added to it. Now the whole underclass became 'folk devils'. The unemployable, in the biggest recession for a century, became 'scroungers'. People with chronic illnesses, even the dying, and those with serious, permanent disabilites were deliberately branded as 'benefit cheats', although repeated studies showed the cheating rate was less than 0.5%. The 'undeserving poor' were denigrated everywhere. Soon charities were noting signs of malnutrition in British children and food banks expanded exponentially. Repressive attitudes were routine even in local government.The metropolitan political establishment had treated the British public with contempt ever since Tony Blair came in. This contempt, north of the border, in the Scottish independence referendum in 2014 was reciprocated by the electorate, nearly destroying our 300 year old Union. The success of UKIP also reflected growing discontent. Now is the time to say: enough is enough. The history of state abuse in this book should make you angry, an advocate for legal and political reform and an activist for the return of our stolen civil liberties.
About the Author: Professor David Gregg is a retired research scientist with a background in mathematical modelling and a long term interest in the dynamics of social change. This interest became personal when his learning disabled son became caught up in the New Labour attack on civil liberties. The professor slowly realised that a whole class of learning disabled and mentally impaired children and adults were being targetted to appeal to an ill-informed electorate. He was led to track what then happened to them and to the rest of UK citizens for over a decade.