Many years ago, when I studied Administrative Law at university, our lecturer would preface every single discussion of any court case involving Mr Justice Sedley (as he then was) with the words that the learned judge was a ’staunch defender of human rights’. It was therefore with mild alarm that I read this morning that the selfsame judge has suggested we should all be put on a DNA database.
His reasoning? That the database is unfair in the way it currently operates. Guilty folk are registered on it, as are innocent people who have come into some contact with the police, perhaps due to having been arrested but released without charge.
The problem, as the Lord Justice Sedley sees it, is that these innocent folk are being tarred with the same brush as the guilty folk. So in order to redress this, every other innocent soul in the land should be added to the database to dilute the stigma of the database.
(As a cheeky aside, this reminds me of a passage in the Bible, broadly stating that: ‘God has concluded the whole world to be sinners, so that he can have mercy on everyone’. When it comes to such wide-sweeping action, I suppose we can trust only God to act in this way, as His ultimate aim, according to that Bible passage, is to show us all mercy. But can we trust the Government?)
By suggesting such an expansion of the database, Lord Justice Sedley has started from the premise that the database is unavoidable: it cannot be done away with, so let’s make the best of a bad situation. But what about arguing the case that, if there is to be a database at all, only the guilty should remain on it? Leaving aside human rights considerations, is it not easier to strike a few innocent names off a database, than to expand the database by adding millions more names to it?
At the lowest level, my interpretation of what Lord Justice Sedley seems to be saying is this: if some innocent people are going to suffer, then let us all suffer along with them. This strikes me as defeatist. Would it not be easier to come up with ways to fix the database?
But we cannot really leave aside the human rights implications of this, and I think the good old judge knows that. So why did he make the suggestion in the first place? Was it to highlight the absurdity of the database? If so, he reckoned without the deviousness of our politicians, who will no doubt seize upon his comments as justification for any further expansion of the database. Already, we have Tony McNulty, the Minister of State for Security, Counter-terrorism, Crime and Policing, saying that he is ‘broadly sympathetic’ to Sedley’s idea. You can just imagine the scene in a few years’ time when this matter is being debated in Parliament. Some Labour minister will justify extending the database on the basis that it was suggested by a ‘leading judge with an excellent track record as a staunch defender of human rights’. Thanks a lot, Lord Justice Sedley. We are dealing with a Government hellbent on extracting from us our civil liberties, and you turn up to make the job easier for them.
I couldn’t help noticing the irony of Tony McNulty saying of Sedley’s suggestion: ‘I think he does underestimate the practicalities, logistics and civil liberties and ethics issues surrounding it.’ Things have come to a pretty pass when a member of this illiberal Government would presume, albeit disingenuously, to speak on civil liberties to a ’staunch defender of human rights’.
September 5th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
I think the horse has bolted here Bel in act the number of people on various data bases is now so large that Lordm thingy has a point. I posted 69 Liberty facts ( yuk yuk) recently and looking through the progress it seemed to me we were more at the point of watching the international sharing of data than trying to defend a lost cause. If I get a second I`ll look up some stats for you . The figures that you will not like are those showing the public are unimpressed with theoretical Liberty as long as they percieve it as a way of delivering the real Liberty to walk down the road un mugged.
There is good reason for the broken society to be at the heart of Conservative renewal . At the moment people are asking to be enslaved as they often do when under threat . The desire to be free and the desire to act communally are the yin and yang of the miracle of Conservatism .
There is one thing we can all do to help
Support Boris Johnson reignite the Liberal Consevative constituency and by saving the country usher in a new age of hope .
Can you BE THE CHANGE BEL ? You will look lovely in a blue rosette !! Suits everyone
September 5th, 2007 at 3:39 pm
Why stop there, charge everyone eighty pounds because some young lout threw up and the police cant find him.
Maybe its time he retired off to the Lords, where he can fall asleep on the Parliment channel.
September 5th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
When reported on the radio in Los Angeles, the claim was that such a database would also include every *visitor* to the UK. Is this accurate? Once you get international relations involved, this could get interesting.
September 5th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
Why stop there, charge everyone eighty pounds because some young lout threw up and the police cant find him.
Exactly, fido …
Yes, Ontario Emperor, the suggestion is that the database include visitors as well. Ridiculous.
September 5th, 2007 at 6:50 pm
I have studied admin law as well. And, remember when Sedley QC, was a staunch supporter of prisoners rights. Then he became a judge and ruled against me. I overturned his decision upon appeal.
I have blogged this as well. And, pointed out that the news is several years old. Therefore, I fail to understand why it has reared its ugly head again.
I do not see the logic of his argument, and believe that it borders upon the irrational.
September 6th, 2007 at 6:50 pm
[…] I no understand , Idiots , Politics You just know you’re in trouble when a judge with a good reputation for human rights advocates putting everybody on the National DNA […]
September 6th, 2007 at 9:43 pm
This is a part of the salami tactics I have spoken about in the past. Our rights are being stripped away ’slice-by-slice.’
September 8th, 2007 at 2:40 pm
His reasoning? That the database is unfair in the way it currently operates.
This is pure “them” logic. He’s sold out.