Something that you need to understand about Britain is the mentality of the British hasn’t meaningfully changed since the war of independence. Then and now the British mentality that is used to justify such intrusions of privacy is “if you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to fear”.
America is different from Britain and just about every other country for good reason. What is happening in Britain and the EU is important for Americans to pay attention to. Because a lot of our politicians are looking over there and getting ideas. Especially the liberals like Obama.
Last but not least Irish CCTV’s are nothing compared to the right of entry into peoples homes to conduct investigations that over 260 public and private entities have been awarded under Labour.
An Englishman’s home is no longer his castle
An ancient right to refuse forced entry into our houses has been tossed aside, says Philip Johnston
Anyone who watched Little Doritt on television recently will know of Dickens’s obsession with bailiffs that derived from the indebtedness of his father. But even the most rapacious bailiff in one of his novels did not have the power of his modern counterpart. Neckett in Bleak House had to be invited in to serve his warrant for debt on Skimpole. This is because, for centuries, bailiffs were unable forcibly to enter a home under a common law right of citizens established in around 1300 and reaffirmed on many occasions by the courts, as in the Semayne’s judgment in 1604 from which the “Englishman’s castle” concept derives, and by successive governments throughout history.
In 1760, William Pitt (the Elder) made a famous declaration of this right. “The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the force of the Crown. It may be frail, its roof may shake, the wind may blow through it. The rain may enter. The storms may enter. But the king of England may not enter. All his forces dare not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement.”
This right to refuse forced entry held for centuries until the Labour government, with its cavalier disregard for personal privacy, came along. In 2004, it introduced the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Bill, which contained a power to force entry in connection with unpaid fines imposed for criminal offences. This was a significant departure from the common law that merited a wide debate; yet it was included in a measure that, on the face of it, had nothing to do with bailiffs. The Government maintains that it was fully considered by Parliament; but it depends what you mean by fully. The Bill was in its final day in committee when ministers tabled “urgent” new proposals to show they were “getting tough” with fine dodgers.
The minister, Chris Leslie, explained: “These amendments give enforcement officers the power to enter premises to execute a warrant of arrest, commitment, detention or distress where the officer has a reasonable suspicion that the offender who is a subject of warrant is present.” The MPs on the committee seemed to have little idea that they were being asked to set aside an ancient liberty, and Mr Leslie certainly did not spell it out.
(And the Swiss have joined, so you don’t even need to show an ID to go there, I’ll wager)