More on the CCDP thing, and on LibDemmery in general.

[miss_s_b]

So, this morning's news brings noises that the leadership appear to be moving in the right direction on the CCDP, and they are certainly making the right noises on the secret trial plans too, but I still don't think they are there, and I still don't think they get that civil liberties are a red line issue, not just for me, but for many Lib Dems.

The usual progress of contentious policy in the coalition appears to be

1. The Tories (or their underlings) announce something


2. The Lib Dem leadership says "Our members probably won't like that, but we'll try and get it past them"


3. The Lib Dem membership erupts in visceral outrage


4. The Lib Dem leadership says "look, we're going to have to water this down, our members are going mental"


5. The Tories give minor concessions


6. The Lib Dem leadership tries to sell this to the membership as a great victory

Now, I have (reluctantly) accepted that process in the cases of tuition fees, and welfare reform, and the NHS, because (although I hate it) I can see that there is an economic argument to be made, and there are valid reasons to accept the pain. I'm not an expert on economics, but people I trust who ARE experts tell me that this is the case.

That is NOT the case with the CCDP.

There are NO valid reasons for extending state intrusion into ordinary people's lives. This is pure and unsullied security theatre of the worst kind. It's "OMG THERE ARE TERRORISTS AND PAEDOPHILES AND THE GOVERNMENT MUST DO SOMETHING!!!" Any of the proposals I have seen will be wide open to abuse, will significantly increase the intrusion into the lives of ordinary people and will be easy to get around, so won't even approach solving the problem. I can't see a way of doing this where those three criticisms WOULDN'T apply. So even if this WASN'T a matter of principle, it's still pointless because IT WON'T WORK.

I accepted all that other horrible stuff because I thought we would at least be able to extract concessions on liberty in return for it. And I don't mean the sort of adding a yellow figleaf to the great big nasty Tory giant with a club for beating the poor concessions that we have "achieved" on Welfare reform etc., either.

On the news this morning, they are talking about how they won't extend the powers THAT much, then, if we're all going to get our knickers in a twist about it. THIS IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH. We should be REPEALING RIPA, not extending it. I can just about, JUST ABOUT, live with the status quo. But if this goes the same way the NHS and Welfare and all those other issues did? I can't live with that. I know we are the junior coalition party. I know we only have one sixth of the MPs that the Tories have. But Liberty is the one remaining unsullied bit of the party constitiution. The party constitution which is so dear to me that I have extracts from it in the sidebar of my blog. We've already given in or sold out on conformity (compulsory prayers in councils) and poverty (welfare reform) and ignorance (letting creationists set up schools FFS). If we trample all over Liberty too, what is left?

Comments

[blazingskies]

Why thank you, a friend of mine made it for me :)