Campaigners stage liberty events
February 28, 2009
UK CCTV camera numbers are thought to be among the world's highest
The “database state”, counter-terrorism laws and press freedom will be among issues discussed by campaigners at the Convention on Modern Liberty later.
Hundreds of people are expected to attend the main event in London, with other gatherings across the UK.
Tory David Davis, Lib Dem Vince Cable and ex-minister Lord Goldsmith are among speakers from across politics.
The morning’s discussion will include a debate on “the crisis of fundamental rights and freedoms”.
Gatherings will also be held in Belfast, Bristol, Cambridge, Glasgow and Manchester - organisers say they expect 1,000 people to gather for the one-day event.
Among other speakers are author Philip Pullman, former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg, director of public prosecutions Ken Macdonald and Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti.
Speaking in a YouTube event to publicise the event, Mr Davis, who resigned from the Tory front bench last year to fight a by-election on the issue of civil liberties, said encroachments on civil liberties had to be fought at every step.
He said governments would reach to make “a naive clutch at often a very technological answer” to problems they could not solve - like crime and terrorism.
‘Shifting balance’
“Whether it’s using DNA, or surveillance, or big databases or very smart software that can identify where your car goes in the country - all sorts of things… are changing the balance between state and citizen and piece by piece everybody’s liberty, privacy, their rights are eroded.
“What we have to do is fight every single one because over time governments will realise there is no political profit in this.”
The government’s plans to extend the period terrorist suspects can be held before being charged led to a large Labour rebellion last year - and prompted Mr Davis’s resignation.
They were later shelved following a heavy defeat in the House of Lords.
Last week the Liberal Democrats unveiled their “Freedom Bill” and pledged a review of the use of CCTV cameras, the abolition of ID cards and control orders for terrorism suspects.
They accuse the Labour government of presiding “over the slow death by a thousand cuts of our hard-won British freedoms”.
And earlier this month the Lords constitution committee warned that electronic surveillance and collection of personal data were “pervasive” in British society and threatened to undermine democracy.
Last year Gordon Brown defended the use of CCTV, ID cards and the DNA database in a speech on civil liberties - saying they helped ensure people’s right to live free from crime.
He argued that those people threatening security were ready to use the most up-to-date technology - and the challenge was to use technology to counter that.
Source: bbc.co.uk/
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