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An Unwarranted Intrusion?

Last night Big Brother Watch teamed up with The Centre for Policy Studies to host an event discussing the accumulation of entry powers by the state. 

Unwarranted Intrusion Research released by Big Brother Watch in December last year revealed that there are nearly 15,000 officers in local councils nationwide who can enter private property without requiring a warrant or police officer escort. You can read the full report Barging In by clicking here. This report built upon the 2006 Centre for Policy Studies pamphlet Crossing the Threshold by Harry Snook, which detailed the number of ways the State can enter a private home as of right.

To debate the power of entry at last night's event - chaired by Jill Kirby, Director of the Centre for Policy Studies - were:

• Dominic Grieve QC MP – Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
• Henry Porter – Novelist and Columnist
• Harry Snook – Author, Crossing the Threshold
• Alex Deane – Director, Big Brother Watch

We will be posting videos of each of the speeches from the event throughout the day and I would urge you to watch all four speakers. Each clip offers tremendous insights into the speaker's expertise and serve as a fantastic analysis of the erosion of liberty and how the current government has intruded into the public and private sphere.

Perhaps the most important development from the event, however, was Dominic Grieve's commitment to two key policies for a Conservative Government:

- The first was his announcement that he would like to see it compulsory for any state inspector to have to apply for a warrant from a JP before exercising power of entry.

- The second was his desire to introduce a 'Repeal Act' to get rid of some of the ridiculous and inappropriate legislation that permits state inspectors to enter our homes.

These two policy commitments from the Shadow Minister for Justice are absolutely critical if a Conservative Government is to restrict the power of the state over our private space. Big Brother Watch intends to keep a close eye on the progression of these commitments and will be ready to hold Dominic Grieve to account should the Tories win the next election. 

The videos of the speeches will be posted shortly.

By Dylan Sharpe

Posted on February 24, 2010 by Big Brother Watch Posted in Events
  • Sandy
  • Sandy

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/video/2009/dec/15/police-terrorism
    Perfect example here..refuse to give your details and they fit you up for something else quite unrelated.

  • azza

    This doesn’t go nearly far enough – doesn’t even ripple the surface.
    First act of new governemnt should be to repeal every peice of criminal legislation forced through the Parliament by spin and lies and deception. Oh, that is every peice of legislation.
    Simples – repeal the lot wholesale and re-write the law so as to fair, balanced and precise without a mountain of leaking data behind it and no council snooper watching to see if you’ve mowed your grass at the correct hour.

  • Britain the New East Germany

    Get real people these laws will not be repealed the conservatives will tinker with these laws but they wont scrap them, if you believe that then you best go live on Mars!
    Don’t forget that the Cons were nearly as authoritarian when they were in power that labour are today labour have just accelerated the process, every successive Government chip away at out liberties.

  • Redacted

    @Britain the New East Germany
    You aren’t wrong.
    Many years ago, there used to be a common rejoinder used by people whose odd behaviour attracted comment: “well, it’s a free country!”
    But I can’t recall hearing anyone say that since the miner’s strike in the ’80s.
    When you are in power, draconian measures seem fair enough, after all you are the good guys and obviously you won’t abuse them. Then you are out of power and the new government (the bad guys) uses them against people like you. Oh dear.
    As I recall, Blair was against ID cards when he was in opposition.

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