New Labour’s march to a police state

It has come to something when the new Tory leader Michael Howard, a man with a deeply reactionary record as Home Secretary, is able to mount a successful attack on the New Labour government over its deepening authoritarianism. Howard was referring to proposals whereby the state will seize the children of asylum seekers denied the right to remain by the frightening Home Secretary, David Blunkett.

But the vicious and continuing attack on asylum seekers - this is the third bill in three years aimed at them - is but one part of the Blair regime’s threatening new legislative programme. For example, the Civil Contingencies Bill gives the police and other authorities sweeping powers to act against civilians in the event of a “national emergency”, whatever that may mean.

Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, rightly condemned the Bill, which she insisted, granted “the government a blank cheque to designate as an emergency anything they deem to be such”. It is quite possible this measure could be used to suppress or curb any demonstration or protest. “It could, for example, be used against Countryside Alliance supporters marching on London or students protesting against top-up fees,” she warned.  Anti-terror laws are, of course, already being used against protestors.

Then there are the first steps towards a national ID card. Foreigners living in Britain will be the first to have to produce them when asked by the police. ID cards are, of course, nothing to do with combating crime or terrorism and everything to do with keeping tabs on the population as a whole. Blunkett wants to be our Big Brother.

The other side of the authoritarian coin is the imposition of the laws of the market economy on public services. That is the meaning of the decision to allow the universities to charge top-up fees to students. Coming on top of the tuition fees already in place, this decision will put the final nail in the coffin of equal access to higher education. Now the market, in the shape of students - or shall we call them “customers” or “consumers” - will decide who goes to university.

Far from yielding to massive protest provoked by the invasion and occupation of Iraq, the New Labour government is pressing on with its plans to destroy what remains of the welfare state and civil liberties. We are far down the road to a police state in Britain. This is the ugly face of modern, globalised capitalism, seen at its most daunting in the United States and soon coming to a neighbourhood near you, courtesy of Blair, Brown, Blunkett and the rest of the New Labour gang.

Movement for a Socialist Future
27 November 2003