The Community over the Individual

Ruth Kelly, that fast laneing, high flying Communities Secretary whose job was created and she was fitted into it by no less than Mr Tony Blair, Prime Minister of Great Britain 1997 – 2007.

Have you noticed that there is no ‘Individual’s Secretary’ or Minister for the British Subject (a.k.a. citizen)? Professor A.V. Dicey wrote back in 1885 that the primary function of government should be to protect the freedom and security of individuals and provide a legal framework based on private property within which personal and economic freedom could grow. This presupposes a society based upon dealings between equals with the government in the background.

Wow! how the mighty consitution of Great Britain has falllen during the last ten years with Messrs Blair and Brown at the helm. Just the creation of a ‘Communities Secretary’ role is an indication that this government has no regard for the rights of individuals and how it must rue the day it introduced the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law.

All the talk we hear about the terrorist threat and the huge security crisis we are facing at the moment, have you noticed that it’s always the protection of communities over the rights of individuals which always takes centre stage?

Finally, as Parliament pushes through a bill to exempt them from the Freedom of Information Act, consider the implications of this in a society where the right to hold to account the very people who we are forced to elect as our representatives want to prevent us from knowing what they are up to as they play with our 365 billion pounds a year of taxes and make deicisions which fundamentally afect the quality and maybe before long the quantity of our lives. Be afraid, be very afraid.