Our essential liberties must not be compromised for an empty security dream

Following the Queen's Speech today which promised to press on with ID Cards, here's an interesting comment piece in the Guardian which is talking a lot of sense:

"The temptation to become irrational in the fight against home-grown terrorism in Britain is equally dangerous. It's easy for politicians and their friends in the tabloid press to scream for ID cards and every possible form of mass surveillance without having to account for the effectiveness of such measures in the fight against terrorism. It is easy for the same people to avert their eyes to the internment and torture that have taken place since 9/11 and to mumble that the greater good is probably being served somehow. They are guilty of careless, impatient utopianism which is not so distant from the neoconservative position - one more push, one more law, one more restriction and we're in the promised land of total order.

It is doubtful whether this approach will do much to defeat terrorism, but it will certainly compromise the essential character of our society and that is important, because we stand for something that is greater than the threat we face."