Even in a time of terror, our liberties must be preserved.
It is plain that the two great menaces to liberal democracy are Islamist fascism - I use that word without worry - and the reaction to that threat from either those who exploit it to reduce personal liberty or those too blinded by panic to consider the qualities that liberal democracy must retain in order to survive.
The news that police are demanding the right to fingerprint people by the roadside and to arrest them if they refuse - whereupon fingerprints, DNA and a photograph will all be taken - is perhaps a footnote in the account of the slide of rights in Britain. However it does underline that we have all become suspects; that the onus is increasingly on us to prove our innocence to an overbearing, officious and meddlesome state
Blair says the ID card issue is not about civil liberties. Wrong. There is no more important battle for those who believe in liberty, privacy and democracy. The ID card is now the front line on the issue of personal freedom.
