Why Digital Britain could be bad for you
Digital Britain is one of those government initiatives that might provoke a degree of cynicism, since it comes at a point when many people are not expecting the authors to hold power for much longer.
Both Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have criticised it as being unambitious in its headline conclusions about broadband roll out.
But that’s not the only thing about this report that should be worrying you.
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See you in court
A directions hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice earlier this week ruled that the libel action brought against me by former Labour Party parliamentary hopeful, former Respect member, former Communist Party member and current Tower Hamlets Tory activist Johanna Kaschke should go to a four-day jury trial towards the end of this year.
The case centres on Ms Kaschke’s arrest on terrorism charges in 1970s Germany, which she admits; you can read a summary of the issues involved here.
Ms Kaschke is also bringing a separate action against Alex ‘Recess Monkey’ Hilton and John Gray of John’s Labour Blog, which still faces procedural issues. Many of the ‘words complained of’ – to use the legal expression – were not even written by me, but consists of comments from the comments box. While I am confident that all of them fall within the realm of fair comment, the outcome of the case could have considerable implications for the freedom of the blogosphere.
Protect Your Data Watch
I didn’t know what to expect when I turned on the feed to watch the parliamentary debate on the Coroners and Justice Bill. Would it be all about protecting people from terrorists? Would it be about efficiency, saving the tax payer money? How would they spin the fact that they are essentially allowing any government minister to abandon the Data Protection Act, and furthermore to allow in the same breath to change *any* act of parliament to suit their needs?
Essentially Mr Straw has created a genie in a bottle piece of legislation. It’s all powerful, its range is almost limitless (you can’t wish for data that isn’t relevant to a “policy objective”), and it’s perfectly fine to possess that genie in a bottle because only good intentioned people are ever going to give it a rub.
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Could a Labour / Libdem coalition happen?
It could, according to Sunder in this week’s edition of New Statesman.
But there must be changes to the New Labour agenda…
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A broadband tax for the UK?
Further to a recent post (on my blog) suggesting that the UK isn’t going to institute a “3 strikes” law, there is speculation that the government might instead introduce a broadband tax, where ISPs’ customers will pay and the money going to the music industry to compensate for the loses they’ve suffered through P2P filesharing. According to The Times:
Lord Carter [...] may suggest additional charges on customers’ broadband bills to compensate the music industry.
There are a number of issues with any such proposal:
EU in ‘not about to lock us all up forever’ shock
One of the most popular sports played by politicans across Europe is ‘blaming unpopular things on the EU’. The specific unpopular thing varies across countries: here, it tends to be Rules And Regulations; in France, it tends to be the ability to buy things without enormous tarrifs; while pretty much everywhere it’s immigration.
However, it’s only in the UK where we have a large, or at least vociferous, group of utter maniacs and obsessives who’re willing to blame absolutely everything that happens on the EU, and to view the organisation as a tool of the Devil, or possibly Hitler, to bring about a communist Hell, or possibly a Fourth Reich.
The first Carnival on Modern Liberty
Welcome to the first edition of the Carnival on Modern Liberty. This has been an interesting week to begin this carnival. We’ve had the rise and fall of the government’s latest attempt to exempt MPs’ expenses from the Freedom of Information Act, the inauguration of President Barack Obama and the launch of the Guardian’s new Liberty Central. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves…
Winning the Right to Know
Is freedom of information a civil liberties issue? We could debate that for hours, but as (my, ahem, boss) Peter Facey says in Yes, Democracy Works (Comment is Free):
…a significant swath of the establishment fears and distrusts the public, treating us as compliant subjects rather than citizens. We are regarded as a problem to be controlled and managed and our fundamental rights and freedoms are paid lip service but considered ultimately to be an inconvenience. The impulse which has lead us to a national identity database, identity cards, the DNA database, photographers being detained for taking pictures in the street, parents being spied on to check if they live in the appropriate school catchment area, the drive to marginalise trial by duty and hold inquests in secret and suspending/habeas corpus, is the same impulse that assumes the public is neither entitled nor interested in knowing how MPs spend their expenses.
The plan to exempt MPs’ expenses from the Freedom on Information Act caused an uproar. The Campaign for Freedom of Information, Unlock Democracy and mySociety moved swiftly.
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Coroners and Justice Bill – destroying data protection
Currently if anyone wants our data in this country they have little to no luck in obtaining it (unless they ask a company registered to sell your information, but even then you need to opt-in), the Data Protection act stops anyone from being able to share our information around willy-nilly. The only body that has comprehensive legal paths to obtain our data, no matter what, are the police and security services. If this happens, then it is only in matters of national security or child protection that the police may contravene the Data Protection Act.
Essentially what this means is that the state has the power to watch you if it has sufficient belief that to do so would prevent a crime that would threaten the security of the UK, or the welfare of children, but no more than this. The new Coroners and Justice bill contains clauses that will blow this out of the water, completely destroy such boundaries to our civil liberties and allow the government to effectively become the managers of our personal data.
What does this mean to you and me, the normal, law-abiding citizens of the country? continue reading… »
Civil liberties campaigners need to look at the bigger picture
The Convention on Modern Liberty has a packed agenda, and I hope it is an event which will lead to some real substantial action. Our liberties have been under attack like never before, yet so far the response has been woefully inadequate and timid, with a few notable exceptions.
But, the biggest problem is that everyone is busy fighting fires and few are standing back to wonder how the whole thing caught alight in the first place.
I’m the first to commend fellow campaigners for their extraordinary efforts, and my hat goes off to the campaigns against 42 days and, just recently, against the secrecy of MPs’ expenses (not strictly a ‘liberty’ issue, but a symptom of the same problem). However, there is no clear narrative being built up about what is really the problem.
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Guardian launches ‘Liberty Central’
With apologies to Unity, it seems the Guardian has appropriated this term for a new website to coincide with the Convention on Modern Liberty.
Help keep Parliament transparent
Update MySociety point out that Parliament has withdrawn the debate on MPs expenses because of external pressure. Result!
Guardian reports:
Gordon Brown today made a dramatic retreat from plans to exempt MPs’ expenses from the Freedom of Information Act.
The surprise announcement during prime minister’s questions follows the overnight collapse of a bipartisan agreement between Brown and David Cameron, the Tory leader, to back a parliamentary order exempting MPs’ expenses from the act.
The End of America, end of western democracy?
“This happened in Germany” said Naomi Wolf’s friend as they chatted politics, and from that seed of doubt in an American’s mind, an American proud of their constitution, came the book (and now film)…The End of America. In relation to the US, I believe this is the most important film to be made since an inconvenient truth; at least on the issue of civil liberties and the erosion of the rights and protections of citizens against their state.
The documentary is essentially a filmed lecture that Naomi Wolf gave, but interspersed with interviews and footage of people who have either been in positions of power or have been the victim of that power. The beauty of it is that due to the subject material it needs not be given the “Michael Moore” treatment as the facts are out there for all to see, the remaining debate simply between those that value freedom and those that have fallen to the manipulation of the state. In this lecture it is detailed that there are ten ingredients necessary to turn a state in to one that removes democracy and runs under fascistic rule.
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Introducing the Carnival on Modern Liberty
Much as I support the Convention on Modern Liberty, I am very conscious of the fact that there are two dangers inherent to an initiative such as this. The first is that all it leads to is talk and a thousand people sitting in a hall munching on sandwiches. Linked to that is the danger that all it leads to is despair; that the problem seems so big and so intractable that people simply end up withdrawing altogether.
It is crucial that the Convention leads to positive action by as many people as possible (I made some suggestions a couple of weeks ago – I’m sure you can think of others).
Our mission must be nothing less than a paradigm shift in how the general public perceives civil liberties.
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Henry Porter issues call to arms
In his article for the Observer today, Henry Porter issues a call to arms, asking people to join him at the Convention On Modern Liberty to take back the country. I like it. The new website has also now gone live.
Do you “deserve” your rights?
Anyone who thinks our civil liberties will be any better protected by a Conservative Government should think again. Speaking in Bangor (the Northern Ireland flavour) on Friday, the News Letter reports Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve saying:
… there is “a rights culture” which is “out of control”, not just in Ulster, but throughout the UK. It did not help that “the undeserving in society” can often use rights legislation for personal gain, he added.
The Conservatives, he suggested, intend to create a UK Bill of Rights which would have in-built safeguards to prevent those “whose own behaviour is lacking” from abusing the powers.
I’m used to people from across the political spectrum differentiating between the “deserving” and “undeserving” poor when it comes to welfare but not when it comes to fundamental rights. This rhetoric even goes beyond the talk about Wrights and duties.”
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Join us at the Convention on Modern Liberty
Are you concerned about the increasing threat to our civil liberties from this government? Do you fear that our culture is becoming too accommodating of authoritarian sentiments? Do you worry about how much power the police are being given every day?
Do you want to fight for your liberties? Do you want to meet with others and get organised? Well, the time has come for that.
On 28th of February a group of people and organisations from across the political spectrum are holding the Convention On Modern Liberty across Britain.
This isn’t just about the triumvirate of big issues such as ID cards, CCTV and the DNA database (42 days is thankfully out of the picture now but still in the background). It also incorporates other issues such as collecting information on football fans, increasing police powers not just to snoop on us, but also on terrorism related legislation.
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Craig Murray fights the lawyers
In July last year I highlighted that legal firm Schillings was trying to prevent former Uzbekistan ambassador Craig Murray from publishing his book, ‘The Catholic Orangemen of Togo and Other Conflicts’. In December, the Observer’s Pendennis reported:
The manuscript has not yet been made public, but it is thought that Spicer’s objections must involve revisiting the time Murray told a parliamentary committee he felt he’d been “set up” by Spicer, who was “extremely difficult to pin down and shifty”.
…
Murray, who had his first book published despite an attempt at censorship by the Foreign Office, says he will not be put off. He plans to post it on the internet in its original form. “There are now 122 electronic copies safe in 27 different jurisdictions, all to hit the net,” he tells me. “In the modern age, you can’t suppress the truth as you could when a few printing presses were the only means of mass communication. I have also started up Atholl publishing to produce copies myself for sale, primarily through Amazon.”
That day is tomorrow, Monday. So spread the word.
R.I.P Oscar Grant – victim of authority
We are, in the supposedly democratic and developed world, not without terrible events happening on our own doorstep by those that are supposed to be protecting our freedom. Rodney King beaten brutally in the US in 1991 pales in to insignificance compared to Jean Charles De Menezes being murdered by British police because of a poorly executed operation based on flimsy evidence here in the UK, or Alexis Grigoropoulos being shot to death for (allegedly) throwing stones at a police car.
We can now add to this list, along with however many other possible unreported or undiscovered incidents, Oscar Grant, a man being arrested and detained along with several other people on a subway in San Fransisco by transport police, shot in the back despite being restrained by two police officers with another standing by ready to assist. The sad thing is some of his last words are reported to be a fear of getting tazed, in a country that brought us “don’t taze me bro“, he knew he was going to get shot with something while being restrained, little did he know it would be a gun.
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Governing by tabloid headlines
Yesterday, Polly Toynbee dismissed David Cameron’s new tax proposals as “part populism, part poison”. If that’s so, then I hope she’ll react with similar disgust to Hazel Blears’ latest belch of blame-the-poor prattle:
Hit-squads will make early-morning calls to make sure parents are out of bed to get their kids ready for school before heading out to look for work. They will even turn up with rubber gloves to get families to clean up filthy homes. Communities Secretary Hazel Blears said: “In a recession, there’s no space for freeloaders. We need a more muscular approach to ways the state intervenes into deliberately-unemployed people’s lives. Young people are often capable of much more than signing on the dole like their parents.”
Let us be clear; these aren’t serious proposals.
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Justice for Hich
Lib Con has picked up on the ongoing case of Hicham Yezza (Hich to his friends and supporters) on a couple of previous occasions in daily news round-ups, but events over the last few of weeks necessitate giving the story a bit more detailed coverage.
And we need your help in highlighting this.
In May 2008, Hich, an Algerian national who’s lived and worked in the UK for more than decade, was arrested at his office at Nottingham University’s School of Modern Languages under the Terrorism Act 2000, as was his friend, Rizwaan Sabir, a postgraduate student researching terrorism at the university’s School of Politics and International Relations.
As for the events leading to their arrest, it emerged, several days after they were arrested, that Sabir had downloaded an alleged Al Qaeda training manual from the website of the US Department of Justice, where it had been openly available since December 2001. Sabir obtained the document in question, which had already been extensively edited/censored by the US DoJ before publication, in order to use it in his research and had done nothing more with it than forward it to Hich for printing to save himself a few quid.
For this ‘crime’ both were arrested and held by the police for six days before being released without charge, at which point Sabir was free to return to his studies, while Hich was immediately rearrested on Immigration charges and, a mere three days later, made subject to a fast-tracked deportation order which was scheduled to be executed on June 1, a mere eight days after it was issued – and all this despite Hich having publicly declared his intent to fight the charges against him.
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You can read articles through the front page, via Twitter or rss feeds.
» Why don’t MPs pay back tuition fees instead of increasing ours?
» Obama is right to slam BP – and why capitalists should too
» Why does Phillip Blond see civil cohesion as a security issue?
» So what if the Labour candidates went to Oxbridge?
» Last night’s Labour hustings: will it get interesting or turn to torture?
» It’s now down to Ken to win London for Labour
» The Labour people need
» Blog Nation: what would you like to see discussed?
» The Labour leadership’s token contender.. and it’s not Diane Abbott
» In defence of these fraternal nominations
» Is this the end for the socialist left?
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