Parliament, Police Powers and Authoritarian Temptations

To the surprise of no-one the public is more concerned by crime this week than it was a week ago. Fancy that! and, equally, to the surprise of no-one, parliament was prepared to indulge any number of kneejerk nonsenses today. Hence the foolishness* about shutting down “social networking communications” during “times of unrest”. Parliament may need to be recalled to give the impression that something is being done; most of the time, in circumstances such as these, it may be best if it only pretends to be doing something.

You don’t need to be as preoccupied with civil liberties as I am to appreciate that there’s the potential for this kind of power to be desperately misused. Nor, for that matter, is it obvious that the police need additional powers to deal with events comparable to those we’ve witnessed this past week. How about using existing powers before declaring them insufficient?