Modern Liberty in Britain February 19

An interesting article entitled 'Liberty in Britain is facing death by a thousand cuts. We can fight back' which links to The Convention on Modern Liberty - an event happening at many venues across the UK on the 28th of February.

Henry Porter, who is the co-director, sums it up best in his blog entry on the subject:

"If there is one overarching theme of the Convention of Modern Liberty it is that we demand that the public be trusted and respected by those in power. That means we will not tolerate the National Identity Register, or be forced to give 53 pieces of information to the government when we travel abroad, or submit to random searches at every possible opportunity, or have our communications data seized by the government and the sinister corporations with which it deals."

It's a pity the Guardian is pretty much the only UK newspaper carrying these stories and columns.

Henry Porter's blog is also excellent reading.

The glimmer fades February 17

Only a few hours later the top story has been replaced with Men tried over 'plane bomb plot' and the Ministers 'using fear of terror' story has been completely dropped off the front page.

Point 6 on the Fourteen Defining Characteristics Of Fascism: A controlled mass media.

*tick*

Points 3 and 7 are also of note.

A glimmer of hope for the UK February 17

Finally, a front page top story on BBC news entitled Ministers 'using fear of terror', detailing comments made by the former head of MI5, Dame Stella Rimington.

Excerpt:

"It would be better that the government recognised that there are risks, rather than frightening people in order to be able to pass laws which restrict civil liberties, precisely one of the objects of terrorism - that we live in fear and under a police state"

It is worth noting that this woman was in charge of the UK intelligence services at a time when there was no IRA ceasefire and the IRA were actively carrying out attacks such as the 1992 Balti Exchange bombing, the 1993 Bishopsgate bombing, the 1996 Manchester Bombing and the 1996 Docklands bombing, and yet she stills sees the importance of civil liberties and assessing risks accordingly.

It is also worth noting that as a result of all 4 of the above attacks, 6 people were killed - less than the number of people who are killed per day on UK roads (around 8 per day in 2007).

As an added glimmer of hope, the associated stories include the recent damning report by the International Commission of Jurists that Anti-terror tactics 'weaken law'.

Doctors February 5

I phoned the doctors the other day to make an appointment for the first time. I was greeted with the following recorded message:

"Welcome to the surgery. For training purposes all calls to the practice are recorded. We apologise if some of our patients find this message too long winded."

I can almost picture the people who complained phoning up and finding the message has got even longer now thanks to their whinging.