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["Lynda" <lurine AT SoftCom.Net>]

The U.K. has joined the U.S. with its own Patriot Act which is being referred 
to as Blair's Enabling Act.

The Civil Contingencies Act (formerly known as the Civil Contingencies Bill) 
was passed on 18.11.04. It could be described as "a nightmare come true".

Supposed to modernise civil emergency arrangements, it goes well beyond this, 
aiming to allow the Government and Ministers to exercise almost absolute 
powers at the slightest excuse.

When Parliament's Joint Committee reported on the original Bill in November 
2003, they were alarmed that:
"In the wrong hands, it could be used to undermine or even remove legislation 
underpinning the British Constitution and infringe human rights".

Lord Lucas likened the slightly-amended Bill to Hitler's 'Enabling Act'.
"... Are we opening up our system to the equivalent of what happened in 
Germany in 1933, when it became possible for an extreme party legitimately to 
hijack a democracy and turn it into something totalitarian?"
http://www.iits.dircon.co.uk/newalliance/ccb.htm