civil liberties and human rights have been eroded recently

Question 1

age of terrorism/national security

Answer 1

-age of terrorism means governments face significant media pressure to prevent terrorist attacks
-liberty points out that politicians increasingly promise to protect citizens by passing draconian laws e.g. Investigatory Powers Act
-since 2000 a series of terrorism acts have been passed by parliament,aimed at potential terrorist suspects but some cases have been ruled to be violating citizens rights

Question 2

age of terrorism/national security evaluation

Answer 2

Organisations such as MI5 and GCHQ are
specifically set-up to defend Britain – a liberal
democracy – against undemocratic threats.

Question 3

unentrenched constitution

Answer 3

-it is said that the UK is only one parliament away from tyranny, as parliament is sovereign and laws of previous parliaments are not binding
-civil liberties e.g. the right to protest can easily be curbed,especially considering government dominance over parliament
-unless the UK codifies its constitution civil liberties will always be insecure
-a right wing populist government could easily strip the people of their liberties

Question 4

unentrenched constitution evaluation

Answer 4

This argument ignores the small ‘c’
conservative philosophy of the UK Constitution . The UK has avoided the authoritarian extremes of Putin’s Russia despite its flexible Constitution because its major right-wing party, the Conservatives, respects the country’s traditional approach to civil liberties

Question 5

independent judiciary

Answer 5

-judges can defend civil liberties if the government acts ultra vires
-the judiciary acts freely from political pressure and has ruled against government (Poundland case) acting as a check on government tyranny
-UKSC can issue declarations of incompatibility to parliament meaning laws must be compatible with HRA 1998

Question 6

independent judiciary evaluation

Answer 6

The Supreme Court can only uphold the law. If
the law is illiberal then it must make ‘illiberal rulings.’ To exemplify, after a defeat in relation to detention without trial under the Terrorism Act, the Blair government simply revised the legislation quickly so that future rulings would allow the government to detain terror suspects

Question 7

political parties

Answer 7

-parties have a significant tradition of civil liberties
-labour is fully committed to protecting civil liberties,as are the lib dems and the snp
-even the conservatives have a mixed record on civil liberties, as seen with the Same Sex Couples Act 2013
-arguments concerning the conservatives wanting to curtail civil liberties may be exaggerated,manifesto commitment to repeal HRA 1998 (2015&2017) was not acted upon by Cameron or May

Question 8

politcal parties evaluation

Answer 8

Unquestionably, there is a populist right-wing
element to the Tory Party that may seek to reform civil
liberties law should the party gain a majority in the next GE.