The U.K. already collects DNA from all people who are arrested—not convicted, arrested. Now a judge says that every man, woman, and child in the U.K. should be part of a natiowide DNA database.

A senior appeal court judge has called for a national DNA database recording everyone living in or entering the country.

Currently, suspects arrested over any imprisonable offence can have their DNA held even if they are not charged, or are acquitted.

Lord Justice Sedley said the current UK database, the biggest in the world, is “indefensible” because it effectively puts the innocent on a par with the guilty.

He argued that an expanded database would be fairer and also aid crime prevention.

Now get a load of the judge’s logic:

“We have a situation where if you happen to have been in the hands of the police then your DNA is on permanent record. If you haven’t, it isn’t. That’s broadly the picture.

“It means that people who have been arrested but acquitted, some of them because they are innocent, some of them because they are just lucky, all stay on the database.

“It means where there is ethnic profiling going on disproportionate numbers of ethnic minorities get onto the database.

“It also means that a great many people who are walking the streets and whose DNA would show them guilty of crimes, go free.”

He said reducing the database could lead to serious offenders escaping conviction when they would otherwise have been brought to justice.

The only option, the law lord said, was to expand the database to cover the whole population and all those who visit the UK.

George Orwell has spun so many times in his grave over things like this in Britain, he’s drilled through into the neighboring plots.

Is this judge really saying that it isn’t fair that criminals’ DNA is in the database, but innocent people’s is not? Is he saying that the only way to not have a racist, unfair DNA database that singles out ethnic minorities is to have everyone in the DNA database? Because that’s exactly what it sounds like he’s saying.

And gee, there’s no way this plan could go wrong. There are currently about 60 million people in the U.K. There’s no way that John Smith of Number Two, Privet Drive, Little Whinging, could be confused with John Smith of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place in London. Nope. Why, DNA labs are just as trustworthy as any other human-driven organization: Smooth, error-free, and always reliable. Especially when run by government bureaucrats.

And just to show you how little the Britsh government regards its citizens’ privacy, here are some quotes from the Home Office on the National DNA Database:

Why are people who have not been convicted on the database?

Before 2001, the police could take DNA samples during investigations but had to destroy the samples and the records derived from them on the Database if the people concerned were acquitted or charges were not proceeded with.

The law was changed in 2001 to remove this requirement, and changed again in 2004 so that DNA samples could be taken from anyone arrested for a recordable offence and detained in a police station.

Does this pose any privacy problems?

Any intrusion on personal privacy is proportionate to the benefits that are gained.

By the end of 2005, about 200,000 samples had been retained that would have been destroyed before the 2001 change in legislation. 8,000 of these samples matched with DNA taken from crime scenes, involving nearly 14,000 offences, including murders and rapes.

In 2005-06 45,000 crimes were matched against records on the DNA Database; including 422 homicides (murders and manslaughters) and 645 rapes.

So according to the Home Office, 75% of the DNA samples taken from arrestees were not identified with any crimes. But they’re keeping them on file, just in case those people actually do commit a crime someday. Because that is a “benefit” that outweighs the personal privacy intrusion to innocent people.

There, but for the Constitution, goes America.

Europe has never gotten over its habit of thinking that the ruling elite know what’s best for the peasantry. That’s what really runs their nanny-state tendencies. Gotta take care of the peasants, dontchaknow. Noblesse oblige and all that.

God save us from catching this particular disease. The good news in this story:

Prime Minister Gordon Brown this morning denied there were any plans to introduce a universal database however.

That’s a relief. For now.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We’ve heard this before.

Palestinian Authority officials said they were in a “race against time” to torpedo plans of Hamas and groups affiliated with the organization to carry out a large-scale terror bombing that could sabotage the success of the US-sponsored regional peace conference in November.

A senior Palestinian security official told Ynet Wednesday that President Mahmoud Abbas has ordered the security forces in the West Bank to make intensive efforts to foil any such attack.

I have a suggestion. Have your men look in the mirror for the terrorists. I’m sure they’ll find them there.

He added that the PA was diligently searching for gunmen and Hamas cells that might be planning an attack in Israel ahead or during the peace summit. “There’s a race against time going on between us and Hamas on who would succeed first: they in carrying out the bombing, or us in foiling it.”

Arafat wrote the book on welcoming peace initiatives with terror attacks. And the U.S. State Department suppressed its publication so as not to show the world who the real terrorists were.

Same old song, different singers.

So it comes to this: Rockets are falling on Sderot’s schoolchildren, and it is only a matter of time before they score a hit. The IDF is prepared to respond. Some high-level politicians call for cutting electricity, fuel, or water to Gaza until the rockets stop falling on Sderot. The IDF finds four kassam launchers in a Gaza operation earlier today. So what does the Cabinet do?

Nothing.

The security cabinet decided Wednesday not to expand the scope of the IDF’s operations in Gaza despite the ongoing bombardment of Sderot and the neighboring communities.

[...] The ministers did not put to a vote the proposal made by several MKs to cut off Gaza’s electricity or water as punitive measures against the firing of Qassams.

Oh, I forgot. Olmert told the IDF to research the problem.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ordered the army to present him with a comprehensive plan to combat the Qassam attacks on the Negev.

Israel is already defeated, because her politicians won’t call for the measures needed, and her people won’t call for the removal of the current administration. Until some kind of action is taken, Sderot’s children will not be safe.