Conclusion: Extra-Parliamentary Politics and Civil and Political Liberties

Abstract

The previous chapters have considered a range of extra-parliamentary political activities which have been utilised by political parties and organisations since 1970 in Britain. Each chapter has specifically examined the reaction of the state to the activity or activities which formed its focus. This concluding chapter examines the implications of these interventions on the exercise of political and civil liberties in particular, but also on political expression and individual privacy. It focuses on two key considerations both of which have major implications for the nature of liberal democracy in Britain. These are whether changes to policing as the result of extraparliamentary political action have undermined the traditional British concept of policing by consent and, in particular, have restricted the freedom of political expression expressed through extra-parliamentary means, and whether the gathering of intelligence by state agencies on organisations which utilise various forms of extra-parliamentary political action (on the grounds of defending the state against subversion) have threatened basic liberal democratic freedoms, in particular, privacy.