Political Editor - Erosion of civil liberties

Reading East MP and Reading West Candidate Issue Response to Public Challenge

22nd July 2008

Rob Wilson, MP for Reading East and Alok Sharma, Parliamentary Candidate for Reading West have today issued a response to letters received from Labour concerning the resignation of David Davis MP and the erosion of civil liberties by the Labour Government.

In their letters sent to local media and provided by a national Labour Party template, both Anneliese Dodds and Martin Salter ask Rob and Alok to make clear their stance on the issue. Salter also raised the issue in his most recent Westminster Column in the Reading Chronicle.

Rob and Alok’s response addresses the serious issues facing the British public in light of the continued erosion of civil liberties by the Labour Government. Indeed, they raise new concerns that the public has not been fully informed about the extent to which the Government’s Communications Data Bill will erode British freedoms and civil liberties by allowing for the creation of a central Government database recording the entire nation's phone calls, emails and time spent on the internet.

They ask, “How many people in this country know that all their phone calls and emails are going to be monitored and kept on an enormous Government database?”

They also raise issues about:

• Data sharing, for example, the DVLA with cowboy clamper - which has happened in Reading on several occasions

• Auto number plate recognition cameras, which are now spread out across the country and now information is being collated at a data collection centre for use by Government

• The national DNA data base which has tens of thousands of innocent people recorded on it, but fails to have all dangerous criminals!

With particular reference to the Government’s poor record on data security, Rob and Alok assert, “These are extremely important questions because your Government, through its extreme ineptitude, cannot keep our personal data secure. We all know about the personal details of 25 million people being lost, but there are many other examples of incompetence. Yet you both appear content that the Government should be trusted to collect as much information about us as it likes!”

They continue, “Unfortunately, you are not on strong ground when you talk about crime, as your Government has an extremely poor record when it comes to dealing with crime and criminals. We find it somewhat ironic that you are writing to us, asking whether we support locking up criminals, “where they belong – in jail” (as Miss Dodds wrote), when your party has presided over the disastrous early-release scheme.”

Indeed, Government statistics published earlier this year revealed that 11,000 criminals have walked out of prison early under the ‘end of custody licence’ system, with an estimated 25,500 criminals to be let out over a full year. They include violent offenders and foreign nationals convicted of serious offences. The scheme was introduced because a shortage in prison places, thanks to a funding crisis caused by Gordon Brown.

The Conservatives mock the Labour Government’s record on crime stating, “Labour came into Government promising to be ‘Tough on Crime, Tough on the Causes of Crime”, yet it has been “Soft on Crime, Tough on the Fighters of Crime”. It has introduced extraordinary levels of red tape and bureaucracy, to the extent that the average PC is stuck in the station processing paperwork rather than on the beat!

Indeed, just a week ago, Rob Wilson attacked the Government for its ‘soft’ touch on knife crime, letting many knife carriers off with a slap on the wrist.

Their letter ended comparing the Labour Party’s contempt for the British people and their disastrous period in charge of the country (not to mention their shared love for taxes) to that of King John, “There is a sensible and mature debate to be had in Parliament and across the country about the surveillance society and the amount of information the Government now collects about each and every citizen without permission. The signing of Magna Carta in 1215 and the establishment of habeas corpus in the fourteenth century were the two most significant steps in British history in securing the freedoms and civil liberties that this Government seems intent on eroding away. Your Government is absorbing powers that it is not entitled to have and is, by doing so, undercutting many of our freedoms that were established over many centuries. We, like the British Barons who fought King John for British liberties and freedoms, believe they are worth fighting for, do you?”