The Telegraph (Free subscription) | yesterday
Exclusive: Gary McKinnon is set to be sent to America to face serious computer hacking charges after Alan Johnson said that he could not block his extradition on medical grounds.
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 1 hour ago
Alan Johnson refers to the case of Sean Hodgson as someone wrongly convicted who would "probably not have been cleared without DNA analysis" ( My DNA dilemma , 25 November). This may well be true, but it has nothing to do with the debate over DNA retention. Hodgson wasn't cleared because the police had been storing the DNA of large numbers of innocent people. He was cleared because he insisted...
Ambush Predator (Free subscription) | 25/11/2009
Postman Pat is in CiF pontificating on why the ECHR is wrong, and NuLab’s authoritarian instincts are bang on the money: Today, on DNA retention, the government must balance several factors. First, there's the scientific evidence , which is still sparse. And will be ignored if you choose to do so for political purposes, as Professor Nutt will tell everyone who wants to listen… The most...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 25/11/2009
The DNA database does not balance liberty with the needs of the state, the state's unreasonable demand has eroded liberty When a politician talks about balance I reach for my taser. The word "balance" has become one of the primary means of distorting the political debate and eroding the stock of liberty. "Today, on DNA retention, he government must balance several factors," says...
Big Brother Watch (Free subscription) | 25/11/2009
The Home Secretary Alan Johnson has today written a short defence of the practice of retaining innocent DNA on the national database for six years. You can read the article in full on the Guardian Comment is Free, but we thought we'd pick out a few choice cuts and show why his reasoning is faulty, unreferenced and internally inconsistent. "The most recent research supports the case for the retention...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 25/11/2009
The liberty-security balance is centuries old. On the DNA database, I think we're getting it right As Willie Whitelaw once noted, balancing the rights of the individual against the rights of society as a whole is one of the most difficult responsibilities home secretaries face. It has been a constant tension faced by the office throughout its 227-year history. Methods of detection, such as interviewing...
The Cult of the Dead Fish (Free subscription) | 3 hours ago
Computer hacker Gary McKinnon is at serious risk of suicide, relatives said today, after the home secretary rejected a last-ditch attempt to prevent his extradition to the US. In a letter today Alan Johnson ordered McKinnon's removal to the US on charges of breaching US military and Nasa computers, despite claims by his lawyers that extradition would make the 43-year old's death "virtually certain"....
New Statesman (Free subscription) | yesterday
Alan Johnson on the Tatooine/Strasbourg connection
Islington Newmania (Free subscription) | yesterday
Its all a matter of perceptive isn’t it .I have been reading articles making this and that case for so long now, that the whole process is starting to be “Frightened out of its sense”...or deconstructed, as New-Labour wish Shakespeare had put it . Yesterday I noticed Alan Johnson arguing for his DNA a bank on the basis that people didn’t like finger prints once , yes that’s...
New Statesman (Free subscription) | yesterday
Alan Johnson defends Gordon Brown and insists the debate on electoral reform is not over
NO2ID Birmingham (Free subscription) | 25/11/2009
The Guardian has found the DNA database figures by region and the West Midlands comes second after Northumbria. We have 118 samples on the database per thousand population yet this does not appear to correspond to our position in the crime statistics. The Human Genetics Commission (HGC), an independent Government advisory body, has called for new rules for officers on when it is right to take a sample...
Left Outside (Free subscription) | 25/11/2009
Liberal Conspiracy’s series on immigration has inspired me too look at something which I have always wondered about. I want to know why various papers in our illustrious press demand immigration be decreased or stopped to prevent our population reaching 70 million. Alan Johnson does not lay awake at night worrying about our population reaching 70 [...]
computing (Free subscription) | 25/11/2009
Tom Young, Computing , Wednesday 25 November 2009 at 14:20:00 Database already contains details of 538 people with foreign nationals to be added "in due course" The database that will hold biometric information for all UK-based ID card and passport holders is up and running and already contains the details of 538 people, according to identity commissioner Joseph Pilling. The National Identity...
open... (Free subscription) | 25/11/2009
There is a nauseating piece of troll-bait in the Guardian today. It's called "My DNA dilemma", and in it Alan Johnson attempts to convince readers he suffers as much as any of us bleeding-heart liberals at the thought of the terrible, terrible sacrifices of freedom we must make for the sake of security. I won't bother demolishing the rickety edifice of its spin and half-truths, since that...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 25/11/2009
Senior inspector warns police risk losing public consent and calls for return to 19th-century style of minimal force Senior police officers could lose the consent of the British public unless they abandon misguided approaches to public protests that are considered "unfair, aggressive and inconsistent", an inquiry has found. Denis O'Connor, the chief inspector of constabulary, used a landmark...
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