purplecthulhu

There's also an issue of 'amount of experience' as well. Major stories about the abuse of authority only come out about once a decade in the UK. We may be seeing one now wrt WMDs in Iraq. Past instances include the West Midlands serious crime squad, for example.

But there are other examples as well which cut to the heart of this issue. The fall of Harold Wilson as prime minister has often been laid at the feet of 'the security services', and there are persistant rumours (see Chapman Pincher and Peter Wright to name but two) of a plot for an actual coup against Wilson. It would all have been very English, with a veil of respectability, but it would still have been a coup.

And then there is the US of Nixon, with plentiful abuses of the FBI and IRS and others for political aims. Similar tactics, perhaps, to those now being used by Bush the lesser (see eg. http://www.berkshireeagle.com/Stories/0,1413,101~6267~1433934,00.html for the mistreatment of those rounded up after Sept. 11, and http://www.diggers.org/freecitynews/_disc1/00000033.htm for news that no-fly blacklists are possibly being used to hamper opposition groups).

And have we really forgotten the massive abuses of Joe McCarthy in the 50s, all of which was perfectly legal and above board and sanctioned by a nice democratic society?

These are among the reasons why even democratic governments can't be trusted.