Blog Posts Tagged ‘conservative’
No Door can hold back the Bailiff.
On the 1st of January 1604 the Court of the Queen’s Bench heard Semayne’s case. From this case the common law principle of a citizen’s right to refuse entry to their property derived. It was this principle that has for centuries allowed us to deny access to our homes to Bailiffs. However as part of Labours apparent policy of assaulting our traditional freedoms the Tribunal and Courts enforcement act 2007 and the 2004 Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 removed this ancient common law right and handed over shocking new powers to Bailiffs.
These powers include the right to forcibly enter a house and astonishingly the power to use reasonable force to restrain householders. This is one of the grossest violations of our fundamental freedoms that I have ever witnessed. Once upon a time an “Englishman’s home was his castle” In 1760 William Pitt famously declared
“The Poorest may in his cottage bid defiance to all the force of the crown. It may be frail, its roof may shake, the wind may blow through it. The rain may enter. The storms may enter but the King of England may not enter. All his forces dare not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement.”
However today non-uniformed individuals who haven’t a shred of authority from the state. May legally “Break open the Door”- Her Majesty’s Court Service Guidelines to Bailiffs and any home owner who resists can be legally assaulted.
Thankfully this terrible crime did not go completely unnoticed. Dominic Grieve Conservative Shadow Home Secretary remarked,
” We are about to give considerable powers to non-uniformed individuals…We are allowing them to enter private premises, which will not necessarily be the premises of the person whom they are seeking to carry out searches… I am a little surprised that we are apparently introducing such potentially draconian legislation without paying real regard to the consequences on the ground on a day-to-day basis”
What Labour has done to our civil liberties is utterly unforgivable. Hopefully Dominic Grieves comments are a sign that the conservative party values our liberties as I do.
(I would like to say thank you to Philip Johnston whose article made me aware of this issue)
