The right to silence

I am somewhat appalled that the SFO is calling for all law enforcement agencies to have the power to over-ride a person’s right to silence. The SFO already has this power, sadly.

As the Police Association say, the right to silence is “a fundamental part of English law”. We should resist any attempts to wind it back except in extreme cases like terrorism.

You see the right to silence, is not about crime, but about privacy.

There are many many good reasons citizens may not want to tell the state what they have been doing. For example you may have had nothing to do with the robbery in an apartment block, but you don’t want to be forced to have recorded down the fact you were there because you are sleeping with Miss X.

The right to silence is what seperates liberal western democracries from the totalarian regimes of former Eastern Europe. Long long may it last.