Cover Story
New
Labour’s police state
In the aftermath of my experience, I started some purely
anecdotal research on the type of behaviour and attitude displayed
by the police towards me. In speaking to friends, acquaintances,
tradesmen, cab drivers and people in the pub I rapidly came to
realise that a quite staggering number of ordinary, law-abiding
people had endured similar experiences.
It is worth remembering how new these powers are. It is only
since the Terrorism Act of 2000 that the new community support
officers, in the company of a constable, have been allowed to stop
and search a car; and that is by no means all they can do. After a
mere three weeks’ training, a CSO can give you a £30 fixed penalty
ticket for such minor derelictions as riding your bike on a
pavement, or dropping a crisps packet. He or she may take away your
booze if you are drinking in public, or confiscate the fags of an
underage smoker. These CSOs may detain you by force for 30 minutes,
pending the arrival of a police officer, if they think you may be
guilty of an arrestable offence. And who can doubt that they will
soon be able to demand the production of an ID card, and detain you
if you fail to produce it?
And on it goes. Last week Parliament passed the new Civil
Contingencies Act, which gives the government astonishing powers to
declare and prolong a state of emergency sine die. This week Her
Majesty announced in the Gracious Address that there is to be a new
Counter-Terrorism Bill, and among its provisions are rumoured to be
judge-only Diplock courts for terrorist suspects.
Such measures are surely only justified in a society at war, and
they might be acceptable if we were truly a nation under siege. But
that is not how it feels to most of us. We have a terrorist threat
to London and elsewhere, a chronic and worrying problem; but that
does not amount to a war, any more than the IRA bombing campaigns of
the 1970s did, and yet we are enacting measures more repressive than
those applied in the Blitz.
By the way, once I had been sprung from the police station, I
walked back to the Embankment, where my car had been left since the
arrest. It was, by this time, 6.45 in the evening and, sure enough,
there on my windscreen was a Metropolitan Police parking ticket. One
further thing — I have just found out from my solicitor that the
copy of the interview tape sent to us by the police is entirely
blank.
Nicky Samengo-Turner, formerly an investment banker, now works
in the Formula 1 motor-racing industry. The Metropolitan Police
said, ‘This matter is currently sub judice and as such it would be
inappropriate for us to comment on any of the information in the
article.’
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