David Davis resigns over removal of freedoms

The BBC reports that the shadow home secretary David Davis MP has resigned over the "slow strangulation of fundamental British freedoms by this government" in light of the controversial vote to extend pre-charge detention to 42 days. In his resignation statement, Mr Davis said:

But in truth, 42 days is just one if perhaps the most salient example of the insidious surreptitious and relentless erosion of fundamental British freedoms. We will have shortly the most intrusive identity card system in the world, a CCTV camera for every 14 citizens, a DNA database bigger than any dictatorship has with thousands of innocent children and a million innocent citizens on it. We've witnessed an assault on jury trials, that bulwark against bad law and its arbitrary abuse by the state; shortcuts with our justice system that make our justice system neither firm nor fair; and a creation of a database state, opening up our private lives to the prying eyes of official snoopers and exposing our personal data to careless civil servants and criminal hackers.

The freedoms we enjoy were fought for by our political ancestors. Our current politicians, it seems, are happy to squander them. We salute David Davis - such a stand is long overdue.

Watch David Davis' resignation speech at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7450728.stm

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