Liberty groups unite to defend UK rights
Posted in: Legal, Privacy & Security at 01/03/2009 20:07
The government and the courts are collaborating in slicing away freedoms and pushing Britain to the brink of becoming a "database" police state, a series of sold-out conferences in eight British cities heard yesterday.
In a day of speeches and discussions, academics, politicians, lawyers, writers, journalists and pop stars joined civil liberty campaigners yesterday to issue a call to arms for Britons to defend their democratic rights.
More than 1,500 people, paying £35 a ticket, attended the Convention on Modern Liberty in Bloomsbury, central London, which was linked by video to parallel events in Glasgow, Birmingham, Belfast, Bristol, Manchester, Cardiff and Cambridge. They heard from more than 80 speakers, including author Philip Pullman; musicians Brian Eno and Feargal Sharkey; journalists Fatima Bhutto, Andrew Gilligan, Nick Cohen and Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger; politicians Lord Bingham and Dominic Grieve; a former director of public prosecutions, Ken Macdonald; and human rights lawyer Helena Kennedy.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/mar/01/civil-liberties-conference
British 'careless' with liberties
British people have been "careless" with their civil liberties, but that is beginning to change, former shadow home affairs minister David Davis has said.
Speaking at the Convention on Modern Liberty on Saturday, Mr Davis said people were growing increasingly angry at government intrusion in their lives.
More than 1,000 people joined the event in London and at venues across the UK.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7915479.stm