Responding to the Convention backlash
The backlash to the Convention on Modern Liberty, as exemplified by David Semple yesterday, seems not about anything the Convention is trying to achieve but because it is being supported by the Countryside Alliance and there are too many Tories (and even a UKIP!) on the panels.
Let’s start with the Countryside Alliance. The CA is about a lot more than fox hunting, and in recent years, played a pivotal role in ensuring the success of the Sustainable Communities Act. The infamous John Jackson, the former chair, is a man I have got to know quite well. Far from being a tweed-jacketed toff, Jackson is a progressive, a solicitor and perhaps one of the best constitutional experts I know. Just read his columns on OurKingdom or his masterful chapter about the rule of law in Unlocking Democracy: 20 Years of Charter 88.
But since we’re on the subject of fox hunting, it has to be said that you can find no better example of Labour’s skewed sense of priorities.
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What do Alfie & Chantelle tell us about modern Britain?
In a limited sense, the rightwing commentariat are bang on the money; yes, the case of Alfie Patten, Chantelle Steadman and the daughter born of their one-off adolescent legover does tell us much about morality in Britain today. It’s just that it doesn’t point to quite the things they would have us believe.
The evasion tactic these writers habitually employ – essentially, laying everything from teenage knife crime to the death of Baby P at the door of some inchoate ‘liberalism’ – does not and cannot wash in these instances, because by definition, every aspect of contemporary British culture is of rightist provenance.
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Who else is to blame?
The former head of the MI5, Stella Remington, is all over the press today:
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.
The fact that this government has exploited terrorism fears to curtail our civil liberties is… well, obvious. But it’s no use just blaming the government, there’s a whole industry of newspaper columnists, think-tanks, writers, bloggers and general wingnuts who have also contributed to this state of affairs because of their obsession with finding Islamists Under The Bed.
Who do you think is also to blame? I’ll start with the easy ones: Melanie Phillips and Douglas Murray.
Taking a wider approach to ‘liberties’
I hope to write a few articles discussing different aspects of the Convention on Modern Liberty, beginning with the bedfellows we seem to have chosen – some of which rather dislike one another.
It says something when both animal liberationists – many of whom are also involved with organisations such as the League Against Cruel Sports – and pro-hunting lobbyists can get on the same bandwagon. Why would we jump into bed with this group?
Similarly, why would we allow Conservatives to take stands at a Convention on Modern Liberties? David Cameron has already admitted, on numerous occasions, that he will not be seeking to overturn a lot of the government’s legislation – and indeed, it was the Thatcher government where the trend of legislating for every tabloid headline truly started. Equally, the drive for tougher sentencing and reduced judicial discretion has often come from the Conservative benches.
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Top Stories and Blog Review – 17th February
Nationwide
Ministers accused of exploiting terrorism fears
Tories propose more council power
BMW accused of ‘scandalous opportunism’
Full-scale nationalisation beckons
International
Nationalize the Banks! We’re all Swedes now
From Pakistan, Taliban threats reach New York
Clinton warns North Korea on missile test
Dubai warned over Israeli tennis ban
DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by ….
Movement politics: a century ago
The new movement politics – the lessons from Obama and the potential of the internet for progressive campaigning, which new spaces such as Liberal Conspiracy seek to realise
– is both the idea of the moment and quite an old idea too.
If politics is the art of the possible, progressive change has depended on the arguments and campaigns which can change the possibilities of politics. One of the best descriptions of why this matters was offered a century ago, as Beatrice Webb recorded in her diary the reaction of Winston Churchill, then a New Liberal member of the Asquith cabinet, to her campaign for the abolition of the poor law.
That campaign arose from the publication – one hundred years ago tomorrow – of the Minority Report to the Royal Commission on the Poor Law.
October 3rd 1909 – Winston and his wife dined here the other night to meet a party of young Fabians. He is taking on the look of the mature statesman – bon vivant and orator, somewhat in love with his own phrases. He did not altogether like the news of our successful agitation. ‘You should leave the work of converting the country to us, Mrs Webb, you ought to convert the Cabinet’. ‘That would be all right if we wanted merely a change in the law, but we want’, I added, ‘to really change the minds of the people with regard to the facts of destitution, to make the feel the infamy of it and the possibility of avoiding it. That won’t be done by converting the Cabinet, even if we could convert the Cabinet – which I doubt. We will leave that task to a converted country’
Protect your data – Safeguards?
This article is one of a series that intends to inform and highlight the issue of Data/Information Sharing as proposed in the Coroners and Justice Bill currently being put before parliament. This is a serious issue for our individual liberties and is one I, and others, will be writing about over the course of the next month or two. If you have not already heard about this bill, please take a look at our analysis of the Coroners and Justice Bill’s contents, and account of both Liberty and the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) stating their opposition to the law as drafted.
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We’ve seen the debate, we’ve seen the law. The Coroners and Justice Bill can, in essence, remove the Data Protection Act wherever the government sees fit. Nevertheless, various people have jumped out of the woodwork to claim it is properly safeguarded. However, that the bill is somehow impossible to use in the means in which its laws are actually written down. Safeguards huh? Let’s see just how safe they are really.
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In defence of LabourList
The more the right-wing bloggers attack Derek Draper and LabourList, the more I feel obliged to defend both (an unfortunate position, I know). Let me explain why in a bit. First, no one gives a crap for what you “think” Dizzy. No one pays you much attention either Donal Blaney (a lawyer who spends too much time obsessing over young Labour PPC Clare Hazelgrove). And frankly Iain Dale, if the Labour party was looking towards you for advice on how to take on the Conservatives online I’d be quite worried.
Here’s the reason for my defence. The right-wing blogosphere is full of vindictive tossers who spend all their time screeching, shouting and generally publishing rubbish. ConservativeHome is about the only place I spend time studying because it focuses on strategy, policy and thinks long-term. This situation mirrors the right-wing blogosphere in America, dominated by the likes of Michelle Malkin, LittleGreenFootballs and Ann Coulter. Only a tiny minority, like The Next Right, are actually worth reading. All Derek Draper has done is taken the same culture and style to absurd proportions by picking a fight with all the heavies. It’s the same Westminster culture of being outraged over the most trivial of rubbish that they all inhabit. The right-wingers may bitch and screech and more but Draper must be laughing for the amount of traffic they’re driving over.
All this rock throwing on either side is immensely amusing to watch – but for these rightwingers to suddenly develop scruples is most hypocritical.
Top Stories and Blog Review – 16th February
Nationwide
Anti-terror tactics ‘weaken law’ in UK & US
Angry factory scenes as BMW cuts 850 jobs
‘British jobs’ slogan splits the public
Asylum for lesbian on the run from Iran
International
Avast! Torrent site Pirate Bay goes on trial
Senior US soldiers in trial missing Iraqi billions
Chávez decisively wins bid to end term limits
Pakistan agrees to Islamic law in Swat region
DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Jennie Rigg
Debi “Innerbrat” Linton has feminist rage about the way the media reports teenage pregnancy.
Hans Nyberg has a 360o Panorama of a village in Gaza.
Rhodri Marsden is not happy about the way the net can mobilise in vigilante action.
Hagley Road to Ladywood is upset about the second class treatment of agency workers.
Matt Wardman has detailed highlights of the travesty that is the Criminal Defence Service Direct.
To cheer you up after all that doom and gloom, Charlie Brooker reviews the new flavours of Walkers’ crisps in his usual inimitable style (he is kinder than the pub regulars were about Fish ‘n’ Chips flavour, which was universally condemned as tasting like “dirty minge”)
And if you hanker after further linkage, the Britblog Roundup and Scottish Roundup are both now up.
Towards a police state
I don’t often disagree with ScepticIsle, but I do on one point. He says we’re sleepwalking towards a police state. I fear we’re marching there.
From today, it will, in effect, be illegal to photograph policemen, as Kate has pointed out below.
Of course, the government will claim that the intention of this act is to stop terrorists preparing to kidnap policemen. This is phooey.
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» The real agenda behind Telegraph’s abortion investigation
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» When disabled people want to work – employers can hold the back
» Revealed: the reality behind Workfare and why it doesn’t work
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» Why country-by-country reporting matters to our wellbeing
» If Unions want to become stronger, they need to modernise
» Why work “reforms” in Spain are a warning for workers across Europe
» Five things you need to know about the NHS bill
» Bigger. Fatter. Gypsier. More Racist.
» Laziness levels in Britain getting lazier, wails government
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