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# Curing the constitution
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/curing-the-constitution/
- Published: 2008-10-07T12:10:19.000Z
- Updated: 2019-02-14T22:41:49.000Z
- Author: Tom Griffin
- Tags: #en, #Migrated, #Import 2026-04-09 18:49

**Tom Griffin (London,** [**OK**](https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom)**):** Over at [Comment is Free](http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/06/civilliberties.uksecurity?ref=opendemocracy.net), OurKingdom founder Anthony Barnett reflects on the lessons of the 42 day debacle:

*There is an authoritarian cancer in the British system that has metastasised. From the Treasury-inspired "transformational government", to local council CCTV, to* [*the interception modernisation programme*](http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article4882622.ece?ref=opendemocracy.net) *that proposes to "live tap" all electronic communication, to ID cards – you name it, it seems, and they will be onto it – an official will is at work to police, control, arrest and expel. It regards restraints, from the Human Rights Act to parliamentary scrutiny as "old thinking". And it is turbo-charged by the huge funding opportunities that "new thinking" permits.*

However, I also think that even if we do not have a healthy body politic, we do have a healthy public attitude which can purge the cancer and cure the patient.