Liberty under threat in UK

An interesting and concerning article in which these words caught my attention. "Those who lived through the last war still remember their identity cards. But they also remember a Britain that disposed of such state controls at the first opportunity. Your identity - and how's this for a right? - was your own affair. Not any more. Thanks to a threat less potent than that mustered by the Provisional IRA in a slow year, we find a Prime Minister deriding law, judges and the bleeding hearts - your servant - who worry over liberty and executive power. Tony Blair tells us that still more police powers are needed, whatever the police might think; that privacy is no longer a human right; that the civil liberties of the suspect - or the duties of a judge - are an impediment to our security."
I continue to be afraid more of the reaction than the 'threat'. In any case, such reactions make the threat more likely to manifest. Have we learnt nothing from Baader Meinhof and the Brigate Rosse?
The Herald : Features: MAIN FEATURES: