Those who have been following the course of New Labour's steady destruction of traditional British liberties will notice a very simple pattern emerging. First, the government removes the rights of those who many would consider undesirables—Muslim "terrorists", drug-dealers, prostitutes, and the like—and then gradually the rights are removed from the rest of us. Often, poorly-drafted legislation is blamed; "this was an unintended consequence," the government claim, "But we'll fix it. Just vote us in again."

And now we see the whole thing happening again with this appalling proposal. Please note the inaccurate but inflammatory headline, indicating the collusion of the press in the government's deceit.

Drug dealers to have assets seized on arrest

Drug-dealers are to have their assets seized on arrest? Who could possibly object? After all, they are drug-dealers and, as we all know, drug-dealers are nasty people.

Police will be able to seize high-value assets from suspected drug dealers as soon as they are arrested under plans to be unveiled this week by Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary.

Law-enforcement agencies will be able to take cars, televisions, laptops and expensive jewellery belonging to big-time offenders. Such assets can currently only be seized at the end of a criminal process, by which time drug dealers have often disposed of them.

Did you note the key word there? The key word is "suspected". These aren't drug-dealers because, you see, they have not been proven to be drug-dealers at all.

Last time that I looked, we had this cute little thing known as "a trial", in this country. And it is determined, at your trial, whether or not you are actually guilty of the crime of which you have been accused.

Further, in this country, you are considered to be innocent until proven guilty. In a trial. Before a jury of twelve good men and true.

If the state is allowed to seize the assets of suspected drug-dealers before they have even been tried, they are effectively presuming guilt.

There is, as Tim Worstall bluntly points out, a word for this: it is theft, pure and simple. The state is giving itself the power to steal your possessions before it has even been determined whether you did the crime.

And anyone who things that this will be limited to drug-dealers is either a fool or dangerously naive. It will not be limited to drug-dealers at all. But New Labour are using that as the headline, because drug-dealers are, as we pointed out before, evil men who deserve all that they get.

And so, state-sanctioned looting is on its way: how many public servants will we see in the dock, charged with theft, do you think? I'll give you a clue: it is a non-fractional figure somewhere between 1 and -1.

And so, the last vestiges of our famous British justice sink slowly beneath the waves; the last vestiges of our ancient rights and freedoms are being removed. And, alas, the British public are just too dim to realise the totalitarian hell that they are sleep-walking into.


Had enough of this Government yet ?

then take a look at http://LPUK.ORG, the Libertarian Party of the United Kingdom.






HatTip Theo Spark/Devils Kitchen