HAVE THE LAST 12 YEARS BEEN BENEFICIAL TO LIBERTY?

Since 1997 although many good people disagree we have been subject to a "nanny knows best" basis of much legislation. Several Lord Chancellors and Secretaries of State and three thousand new laws later a supposedly left of centre parliament has allowed the salami approach to reducing freedoms to gather pace. From increased CCTV cameras to restricting the photographing of innocent scenes in central London by amateurs and professionals alike there seems no end to the state`s actions to treat us all as guilty of something until proved otherwise. There is no specific offence of "Domestic Violence"; it is often prosecuted as "Assault by beating" or a more serious charge and the victim`s relationship with the defendant is an aggravating factor. However all magistrates in the last three or four years must have specialist training before sitting on such cases. Training is usually beneficial to the trainee or should be. But much of this training is to acquaint the JP with various statistical analyses that appear to indicate that over thirty assaults would have been likely to have occurred prior to the charge being brought. This, in my opinion, is an attempt to condition the JP to be predisposed to sympathise with the victim and perhaps not to rely purely on the evidence brought to court where of course the standard of proof of guilt is "beyond reasonable doubt". There is no study to my knowledge, although I stand to be corrected, of conviction rates in such cases relative to others of a similar nature previously. Recently made available to the courts to impose are restraining orders even after a " not guilty" outcome in a case of Assault [domestic violence]. It is an abuse of power to keep DNA samples of innocent people. This subject has now reached levels outside the U.K.`s domestic Criminal Justice System. A driver of a four wheeled vehicle in collision with a cyclist riding as though intent on suicide must now prove his innocence. The scandal of "control orders" where the accused is unaware of the charges is still current at the highest levels of the law. There was a recent case of two friends who were police officers in the same force who can`t look after each others children to the mutual advantage of all without breaking recent legislative guidelines. Would it have been conceivable in your wildest dreams twenty years ago that such a descent into authoritarianism would happen here? Anybody who values the liberty of the individual must give thought to whom their vote will go next year.