?After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp and fashioned him at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.?

These were the observations of Alexis de Tocqueville in 1831, after a prolonged sojourn in America. The power he is talking about is what we now see as the best form of government: democracy. Subsequently, he published these almost prophetic words in his book Democracy in America, one of the celebrated texts about democracy (although de Tocqueville?s admirers rarely mention his apologia on colonisation, but that is another discussion). These days, it seems de Tocqueville?s fears, on the potential for despotism within democracies, have come full circle.

Jailing peaceful protesters

On 3rd April, a new law came into effect in Britain that further chips away at civil liberties, as New Labour and Blair embrace authoritarianism. New provisions under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (SOCPA) deliver a further tool to complement the Terrorism Act in the task of state repression.

This continues New Labour?s attack on free speech and legitimate protest, which the party seems hell-bent on constraining. SOCPA was designed with one man in mind. In 2001, Brian Haw set up a vigil outside Parliament Square, Westminster to protest against the ?war on terror?. He has been arrested several times by the police for various offences. In 2005, the Blair government decided to get rid of what they see as an irritant, unnecessary reminder of the disastrous enterprise of war in the Middle East. Hence the SOCPA, which prevents unauthorised protests within a kilometre of Parliament. Anyone wishing to protest would have to apply to the police six days in advance.

Freedom of speech attacked

The irony has not been lost on Brian Haw, who says he is not committing serious organised crime, but opposing it. However, last year, a judicial review in the High Court prevented the government from removing Haw, since the law cannot be applied retrospectively, a decision the Home Office has appealed.

The new provisions in SOCPA have led to further arrests. Last week, Helen John (68) and Sylvia Boyes (62), two grandmothers from Yorkshire, were arrested for trespassing on a military base. In fact, they had walked 15 feet across the sentry line at a US base carrying a little hammer and bolt cutters (to show the absurdity of the new restrictions) and a banner protesting about the change in legislation.

They had prepared a statement which contained among others, a declaration of support for the Chagossians. They were arrested by the ministry of Defence (MoD) and could face up to one year in prison.

By now, there has been a rather long and sad history of repression in modern Britain. There has been the story of John Catt (81), arrested for wearing an anti-Blair T-shirt accusing the latter and George Bush of war crimes on his way to join an anti-war demonstration outside the New Labour conference last year. Then, there was Walter Wolfgang (82), also ejected and later detained for heckling Jack Straw during that same conference. Both men were detained under section 44 of the Terrorism Act. The case of Maya Evans is even more astonishing. As she read a list of soldiers killed in Iraq, she was arrested under SOCPA, for failing to notify the police of her protest within a kilometre of Parliament. Mark Barrett, an anti-war activist, was convicted under the same legislation for holding an anti-war tea party on Parliament Square. He was fined £500 plus costs and could still face a prison term.

All these examples, show to what extent the Labour government has taken Britain into an Orwellian world, where dissent is quickly quelled by an authoritarian state. According to Liberty, Britain?s foremost human rights and civil liberties non-governmental organisation (NGO), ?The Serious Organised Crime and Police Act makes all offences liable to arrest, meaning that protesters who might previously have received a warning, could now be arrested. The police would then be able to store their details, fingerprints and DNA.?

Hence, the police can build a database of all ?irritants? such as Brian Haw, thus restricting the extent of rebellion for the population. After all, this is the same government that took its country to war against the democratic wishes of its people. If we consider the other gem of New Labour, the legislation on prevention of ?glorifying terrorism?, we can observe a systematic attack on freedom of speech. It draws parallels to the Patriot Act that the United States enacted after the 2001 attacks on its territory, which allowed the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to collect records on books borrowed from libraries.

As it is, it seems the early fears of de Tocqueville about the emergence of a new tyranny within democracy seem to be gradually confirmed. The erosion of civil liberties, from its most extreme form, expressed by the Taliban, to its more benign one, as practised in liberal democracies, offers a lot to worry about.