Effective policing, not repressive legislation, has saved the country in the past, says Geoffrey Bindman
The response of our current government to terrorism is nothing new. But history shows that repressive legislation is not always the answer.
When revolution erupted across the Channel in 1789 fear gripped our rulers. Rumours of armed insurrection were rife and government spies added to the panic with exaggerated reports of secret training camps and the illicit manufacture of weapons. Prominent advocates of democratic reforms were arrested and put on trial for treason. When juries refused to convict new laws were introduced to restrict public meetings and publications critical of the government. After the Napoleonic wars there was more unrest. Many who stayed at home had profited from the war but the returning soldiers had no work and radical ideas again took hold.
In 1819, the government introduced harsh new laws, the “Six Acts”, which prohibited possession of weapons by civilians, introduced wide search and seizure powers, restricted public meetings, increased penalties for blasphemy and sedition, and imposed swingeing taxes on pamphlets
