TAKING AN AWFUL LIBERTY
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hambers Twentieth Century Dictionary defines the word liberty as: "...freedom to do as one pleases...". It's a flawed definition; liberty without responsibility is anarchy. But why the sudden interest in semantics? We're simply pondering the latest attack on the "establishment" by civil liberties group Liberty. The establishment, in this case, is the Department of Transport. It seems the DOT has violated civil liberties by screening 0-licence applicants for criminal records, To this end, the new application form asks would-be operators for their date of birth. Ok, so it's not exactly "1984", but your date of birth reveals more about you than you might imagine—such as helping the police to check up on criminal records, "There's nothing wrong with trying to check up on criminal records," says Liberty, "but it should be a wholly transparent process. It should be made clear on the form why the information is requested and for what it will be used." Now that's plain daft. Criminals have been known to tell the occasional fib, so telling them why you're checking up on them is likely to have them being "economic with the actualite", as a senior civil servant once put it. And it's not just old lags who suffer from sudden attacks of amnesia when it comes to their past. It's amazing how many hauliers forget to inform their local LA of past convictions for speeding, overloading and drivers' hours offences. "Did I have to tell you about that?" asks Joe Soap Haulier with all the wide-eyed innocence of a choirboy when he appears up before the LA in a public inquiry. f course if all the enforcement agencies shared the same information you wouldn't need to ask "date of birth" in order to discover whether any new haulier had form. The LAs would have it in front of them in black and white. While the Government dithers, Labour's shadow transport minister Graham Allen wants more careful vetting of dangerous operators attempting to enter the haulage industry. Let's hope he'll stand up to all those do-gooders who put personal freedom before public safety. It's time groups like Liberty realised that if all new entrants to road haulage are to be of "good repute" then there has to be a price, and that price is openness. Milton had it right when he wrote: "Give me the liberty to know..."