Anti-Terrorism Legislation: A Political Tool to Restrict Civil Liberties

The United Kingdom Government has on numerous occasions since the troubles in Northern Ireland to the events of September 11 and 7/7 introduced new legislation which provides increased powers to the intelligence and security services to protect its citizens. At times, these powers have done little to protect the citizens but handed considerable powers to security organisations which continue to rely upon them by restricting and limiting the rights of the citizens. This study shall examine how the United Kingdom Government used terrorism as a political tool to pass security legislation restricting liberty.