A loss of liberty

IT was barely two years ago that David Cameron compared the hoarding of the DNA of innocent people to the practices of “the most oppressive regimes in the world”. Yet now he appears to have decided to do the same in England and Wales. If many of the coalition’s other u-turns have provoked derision, then this one will prompt outrage as it suggests the Government views ordinary people as incipient villains whose behaviour must be monitored.

There is little backing for what has apparently become Government policy. It is almost impossible to think of examples of serious crimes which have been solved using the retained genetic code of an innocent man or woman. Where the national DNA database has played a part in the conviction of high-profile crimes, it has invariably been when the guilty have previous convictions, such as in the case of Steve Wright, who was convicted of theft five years before he murdered five women in Suffolk.

Labour did not always get the balance right when it came to balancing citizens’ freedom with their security and the coalition must not make the same mistake. Otherwise the “new politics” will begin to look very much like the old, failed style.