Gordon Brown Supports Phone Taps as Evidence
The British Prime Minister has publicly backed the use of phone tap evidence in court.
Today, in a Commons Statement, he said: “The use of intercept evidence characterises a central dilemma that we face as a free society - that of preserving our liberties and the rule of law, while at the same time keeping our nation safe and secure.”
Since the editing of digital media is now almost impossible to detect, how can we trust this material as evidence in court?
We are already the most watched developed nation on Earth, with no possibility of going about our day to day law - abiding business without being caught on CCTV hundreds of times per day.
The usual excuse is ‘if you’re not doing anything wrong, there’s nothing to worry about’, but we are supposed to be living in a ‘free society’. In reality, we have steadily descended into a Police State over the last few years. The Government has used terrorism as an excuse to gradually erode our civil liberties and nobody has the guts anymore to stand up and fight for their rights.
I remember only too well the regular mainland bombing campaigns by the IRA in the 1970’s. I was in Manchester when a bomb blew up the Arndale Centre - and did the Government restrict peoples movements -taking away civil liberties? No! They told us to be vigilant, but go about our business as usual.
The fact is,that when Governments start jailing people without trial, snoop on everybody, day in, day out - just like the East German Stazi used to, then the terrorists have won!
I wouldn’t say the terrorists have won, really — I’d say that everybody loses.