Letter: Overdue victory

The decision by the Supreme Court to deny Scottish police forces the right to question suspects without a lawyer present is a long overdue victory for civil liberties.

There will be the usual histrionics and hyperbole from those from the hang 'em and flog 'em brigade who regard civil liberties as morally repugnant and blame the 1960s for having brought about a moral collapse in this country.

They will use their favourite stock phrases of "criminal's charter", "compensation culture" and, the best of all, "political correctness gone mad" to try to defame this judgment. Individual rights are not a malignant, dirty phrase as some on the political right would have us believe.

What the law and order loonies don't ever seem to understand is that when a person is arrested they are merely suspected. They have not yet been convicted.

That person may be completely innocent but the police who are interviewing them have the full power of the state on their side.

It is absolutely right that in a democracy individual rights are respected. It was precisely not having immediate access to a lawyer which made the Guilford Four and Birmingham Six confess to crimes they did not commit.

For 13 years we have seen a Big Brother state erected; anything which tears it down is a good thing.

Alan Hinnrichs

Gillespie Terrace

Dundee