Last year Chris Atkins released a film and a book called Taking Liberties (Revolver, 2007). In it he documents the wave of changes in the law that Tony Blair's government have made. Not only were more laws passed than at any other time in history ever, but the particularity of the laws have obliterated the Magna Carta.
The supposition has tuned away from a presumption off innocence until proven guilty.
When a Prime Minister's strategy of reform ends up tearing up the Magna Carta, it is a very different thing from having him harangue a crowd from a podium, and designate a particular group as The Ones who must be removed. But the lack of evil intent simply removes the consistency in the system. What we have instead is an unpredictable law of unintended consequeces - a great degree of risk and uncertainty.
In Chris Atkins film he re-presents the moment when Walter Wolfgang was slung out of Jack Straw's talk at the Brighon Labour Conference (2005). Wolgang, a very slightly built man in his 80s, had been unable to stop himself shouting Nonsense when Straw was talking of the war. Watching this footage is chilling. Not only is it horrible to watch big beefy bouncers manhandling a little old man, but it is also very upsetting to see most other people stunned into inaction. One brave bloke who attempted Wolfgang's rescue was himself seized, dragged off into a room where the camera couldn't follow and was physically abused. Atkins' film then cuts to a smiling shot of a bemused Blair who says: "I wasn't there".
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