http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/henryporter/2009/jan/19/civil-liberties-labourPower has been given to the most minor officials to hurt and harass people. The new air of officiousness is unacceptable
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What is noticeable now that so many of Labour's laws have come into force is the increase of pettiness, bullying and loss of humanity in local officials, government agencies and the various new breeds of wardens and community officers who patrol the streets looking to fine those who feed the birds and put up notices for their lost cat.
It is the detail of stories that reach the local press that tells us of the vast change in the relationship between the man in the street and authority. A new and – to me – alien element of harshness has entered the equation, and I believe we are going to see a lot more of it.
Pick any recent story, for instance, the one about Jack Roocroft of Monmouth, a pensioner suffering from leukaemia and on chemotherapy who was arrested by armed police after a hoax call saying that he had a gun. He refused to come out of his home because he feared that he would be shot, and for this he was held overnight in the cells.
These days it seems surprising that the police didn't use their new Taser stun gun on Mr Roocroft. They did on a confused 89-year old man in Llandudno, whom they believed was suicidal. In both cases it did not seem to occur to the police that all they needed to deploy was a firm and humane manner. Perhaps they have become so addicted to running round in their Swat gear and with their new gadgets that they can't tell the difference between a sick old fellow and a real threat.
This behaviour is not only unpleasant; it is dumb and utterly un-British. You see it in the appalling treatment of 78-year-old pub landlord Andy Miller, who collapsed and died of a heart attack after a bailiff went to his house and insisted that he drive him to the cash machine so that Mr Miller would pay an overdue speeding fine.
The justice minister, Jack Straw, has announced an inquiry into the incident but it is these bailiffs that Straw has licensed, so that they can force their way into homes to seize goods in settlement of fines for the first time in 400 years. Mr Miller's nephew Steve Flanigan, 61, said: "The visit must have been such a shock, because most people don't know what their rights are. When someone is there on your doorstep, can you just tell them to go away? Do you have to do what they say? Most people just wouldn't know."
Writing in the Guardian, Polly Toynbee once claimed that the people who feared New Labour's laws were simply privileged middle class folk looking for victimhood. The truth of the matter is that we all have something to fear, but especially those who cannot defend themselves, like the children whom the police have now got permission to Taser, even though in the last couple of weeks a 17-year-old boy was killed in America by one of these lethal guns.
Power has been given to the most minor officials to hurt and bully people. There is a new air of officiousness that is utterly unacceptable. Last week Damien and Charlotte Hall were told that Damien was too fat to adopt a child. Who said only thin people make good parents, and what right does Leeds city council have to comment on Mr Hall's weight? This is what Mr Hall said: "The bottom line is I'm too fat. I just feel as though we were only judged on my weight and not all the other good things about us. We don't drink or smoke and we could give a child a happy and safe home."
Harsh? Inhumane? Insensitive? Yes, but Leeds has nothing on Thanet council, which effectively forced a disabled 91-year-old mother to take out a second mortgage to pay for unnecessary stone-cladding repairs to make her home compliant with the Home Energy Conservation Act in Ramsgate, Kent. The £16,000 bill left Dorothy Hacking with £112 extra to pay on her mortgage each month. She was deaf, blind and extremely worried. Hardly surprising that she died. All the local council – in the shape of one Zita Wiltshire – could say in its defence was: "We are sympathetic to the concerns of our leaseholders but the council does spell out the detail of the financial obligations imposed upon a lessee in the terms of each right-to-buy lease." There speaks a bureaucratic bully.
If you are young or old, you are far more likely to experience the full force of the new authoritarianism. At Lynch Hill primary school in Slough they have started using CCTV cameras to track down children responsible for classroom pranks. A girl caught on film hiding another child's shows was exposed. Was the crime so serious? Couldn't a teacher elicit the information from the class without resorting to surveillance tapes? The girl's mother said: "This use of the cameras is ridiculous. She took the shoes and hid them in a locker. We all do silly things and play jokes when we are children. They should have given her a chance – she's only eight.
"My daughter no longer wants to go to the school," she added. "The cameras have made her a bit panicky. Children should be taught to tell the truth without the use of these cameras."
Sooner or later all of us are going to come against boneheaded, heartless officialdom. A very good piece in the Portsmouth News tells of university lecturer, John Molyneux, who was arrested and charged after a peaceful protest against the Gaza invasion in Portsmouth's Guildhall Square. It is alleged that he failed to give police notice of the demonstration. Since when do we have to ask the police to demonstrate?
Then there is David Gates who was stopped and searched after taking a picture of a police car parked at a bus stop, presumably because it was illegally parked. Police told him he was stopped under the Terrorism Act. Right, and I am bleeding Osama bin Laden.
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