Tony Blair fanously set out his stall on his way to power on the back of a 'tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime' approach, but even he did not advocate that our police forces should disregard the rule of law in pursuing criminals and terrorists.
Because Labour is once more being seen as soft on law and order, it seems that at least one of its leading lights has lost touch with the distinction between tough law enforcement and law-breaking.
The Independent reports that Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner has told Matt Forde’s Political Party podcast that Britain’s terror police should “shoot first” and “ask questions second”.
This is a policy that has been adopted by the UK before of course, as evidenced in Gibralter in 1988, when three members of a Provisional Irish Republican Army cell were shot dead by undercover members of the British Special Air Service, even though they were subsequently found to be unarmed. No bomb was discovered in their car either, leading to accusations that the British government had conspired to murder them.
I detest terrorists and criminals as much as Angela Raynor, and, like her, want to see tougher action taken on vandalism, anti-social behaviour and other dangerous activities. However, it is irresponsible of a senior politician to effectively say that police or any other government agency can effectively ignore the rule of law without cause, to arbitrarily execute those suspected of terrorism.
That is a slippery slope that can lead to huge injustices and the death of innocent civilians such as Jean Charles de Menezes in JUly 2005. It would make the British state as bad as those who seek to undermine it.
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