Labour MPs' DNA test views shows their authoritarian instincts

It's often thought that the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats are much easier partners than the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives, that we have a lot more in common. That's not the case. Certainly there are some aspects of social policy where we agree, but philosophically, we are a million miles apart. Both Conservatives and Labour have aspects to their basic rationale which turn my Liberal Democrat blood cold.

With the Conservatives, it's their instinct to protect the rich and powerful at the expense of the vulnerable. Without the Liberal Democrats to take the sting out of them in Government, there would be absolutely no measures to help the poorest at all.

With Labour, it's the fact that they don't see people as individuals with their own minds and opinions. They just see as as an amorphous blob to be controlled, rather than trusted.

I want to see the person who murdered Bristol architect Jo Yeates behind bars. Make no mistake about that. Whoever did this needs to be locked up before they strike again. However,  I am dismayed if not surprised that Kerry McCarthy, a Bristol Labour MP, has come out and said that she would support the DNA testing of every man in Bristol if the Police thought it was appropriate. Tom Harris, Labour MP for Glasgow South, agrees with her. 

That horrifies me for two reasons. To my mind, the state should only have access to such information about you if there is actual reason to suspect that you have done wrong. Being male is not sufficient grounds as far as I'm concerned. If this was done on a voluntary basis, is the guilty person actually going to put themselves forward? Who says they live in Bristol anyway? Do you then assume that people who object to such an infringement of their rights have something to hide? Would conscientious objectors be persecuted? The implications of that approach are chilling.   Do we stop men from going out or restrict their movements just because most violent crime is committed by men? Taking DNA from the whole population is the start of a very slippery guilty until proven innocent slope and the very mention of the idea should have us up in arms at such an affront to our liberty. 

Apart from the obvious civil liberties implications, what a waste of time and resources it would be. Surely such a mass effort would be much better spent on actually trying to find the culprit. There are, according to population records, not far off half a million people in Bristol.  Around half of them will be men. So, how many people are going to collect the samples from these quarter of a million men, and get them processed. Say only a quarter of them volunteered - that's still over 60,000. The capacity of Celtic Park in Glasgow is something like 60832 (thank you, Wikipedia). Imagine that whole stadium chock a block full of people to be tested. And then you have to process the results. It would cost an absolute fortune and you may still , and in fact, I'd go as far as to say you probably will not find the killer. 

Liberalism in Action - Jo Shaw and Jenny Willott MP help people remove DNA records

That's quite a scary headline. I must surely been writing about some horrendous totalitarian regime that's storing up people's genetic material for nefarious purposes.

Actually no. Stephen has today highlighted that our very own Police Force is arresting people for no real good reason just so they can nab their DNA for the database, and if you happen to be a black male, your chances of having that happen to you are much higher than those of a white female like me.

What's even more horrifying is that around a third of that figure is the DNA of children. This article shows how easily a child's DNA could be put on the database and the consequences of that.

The Government's own figures admit to the DNA of 980,000 innocent people being on the database. I wonder if they're going to offer some amazing prize to the looming millionth victim of such DNA harvesting.

I noticed on Twitter last week that Jo Shaw, Lib Dem PPC for Holborn and St Pancras in London was organising DNA Surgeries where she's been advising people, including children, how to get their DNA off the database. As a board member of Liberty, she feels very strongly about this unwarranted abuse of our personal information by the state. Liberal Democrat MP Jenny Willott has also held a similar event, as has Labour MP Diane Abbott.

I asked her how the surgery had gone and she replied:

Good thanks! Good few interested kids and was great to get the message out about the DNA database. Going to do it again!.

I asked her a bit more about the sort of advice and help she was able to give to people and she very kindly sent me a copy of the draft letters and advice she was able to give to people. You can find out more here. I wasn't surprised to discover that the Police guidance tells them to always refuse the first request so if you want to make sure that your records are destroyed, you will have to be persistent.

These surgeries are a really practical way of putting liberal values into action. They pioneer a practical way of empowering people, giving them the information and the tools that will help them right the injustice they've suffered. They let people no that it's not ok for the state to store your genetic material for no good reason and show them what they can do to challenge it.

The more people who join Liberty, the more people they'll be able to help with all sorts of injustice and abuse of their human rights. Here's how to join.