Police Powers and the UK Government in the 1980s
I found this great paragraph in this article on the future of privacy in the UK:
One of the few home secretaries who dominated his department rather than be cowed by it was Lord Whitelaw in the 1980s. He boasted how after any security lapse, the police would come to beg for new and draconian powers. He laughed and sent them packing, saying only a bunch of softies would erode British liberty to give themselves an easier job. He said they laughed in return and remarked that “it was worth a try”.
sehlat • April 8, 2009 1:44 PM
I’m not sure where I ran into the comment, but it’s surely valid: “A policeman’s job is easy only in a police state.”