Last night I watched Taking Liberties on DVD. It's an important documentary that should be watched by everyone in the UK. People in America could also learn what they might have in store.

The film starts with footage of the disgraceful Fairford incident where police "coach-napped" peaceful anti-war protestors and breached their rights.

It then goes back to 9/11 and proceeds to document the way that the Blair government has systematically eroded basic human rights. As a civil liberty advocate I knew most of what was shown but there were a few points that were eye-openers even for me.

The film makes frequent parallels between Blair's Britain and measures introduced in countries such as Nazi Germany and Rwanda. As with the famous NO2ID Blair/Hitler advert the film doesn't say Blair is like Hitler, merely that he is building the tools of totalitarianism.

Of course some people will say that I should be happy I live in a country where I have the freedom to watch a film like Taking Liberties.

I am.

What worries me is that future generations may wake up one day to find they no longer have that freedom.

Labels: civil liberties, Tony Blair

I remember election night 1997. I stayed up into the early hours of the morning cheering as the extent of the Tory defeat became apparent. I clearly remember the joy of seeing Michael Portillo defeated by Stephen Twigg. The next morning the sun was shining, Tony Blair was in Downing Street and I really believed that things could only get better.

My one regret was that I couldn't be with Tony Blair to shake his hand.

Where did it all go so wrong?

It began with the economy. During the election Blair had used the rhetoric of the Tories - but few of us believed him. We assumed it was just an election ploy, that he'd discard it once he was Prime Minister. Yet instead he embraced the language of the unfettered market and failed to reverse any of the disastrous Tory privatisations.

Still there were some high points: the introduction of a minimum wage, devolution for Scotland, incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) into UK law. So I was a little disappointed with some aspects of Blair's government but generally happy.

Then came 911 and the authoritarian wing of the Blair government seized on it as an opportunity. The talk of compulsory ID Cards began almost immediately.

911 was probably the defining moment of Blair's regime. Would he stand up to authoritarians like David Blunkett and defend our liberties, or would he sacrifice them on the altar of supposed security? He chose the latter - and lost my support. The UK derogated from Article 5 of the ECHR, undermining Blair's greatest achievement and paving the way for internment without trial.

Following 911 George W Bush decided to invade Iraq. It was obvious that 911 had nothing to do with Iraq but simply provided an excuse. For Blair to go along with this seemed unbelievable. The idea that he might do so without a UN resolution - collaborate in an illegal invasion of a sovereign nation - was mind-boggling. I was one of the million people who marched through the streets of London in a protest that Blair simply ignored.

As predicted, the invasion of Iraq didn't make the world a safer place - it made it a much more dangerous one. Blair's response was a steady erosion of our civil liberties, the worst being the ongoing plan to impose compulsory National Identity Cards and a huge, intrusive National Identity Register (NIR).

Apparently emboldened by his success in exploiting the terrorist threat, Blair - initially through Blunkett - extended his attacks on traditional freedoms into other areas: removal of the double jeopardy protection, attempts to restrict the right to trial by jury , constant attacks on the presumption of innocence and much, much more. In the name of protecting British society Blair has ripped up some of its most important foundations - the freedoms which people spent centuries fighting for have been discarded in a decade.

So this afternoon I'll be watching Tony Blair drive to Buckingham Palace and resign as PM. I'll be cheering as loudly as I was ten years ago.

My only regret will be that I can't be with Tony Blair to spit in his face.

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Labels: civil liberties, Tony Blair

If anyone remained in doubt about Tony Blair's attitude to civil liberties he admits it today in an article in The Times.

Discussing the recent absconding of three terrorist suspects subject to control orders, Blair says:

"So the fault is not with our services or, in this instance, with the Home Office. We have chosen as a society to put the civil liberties of the suspect, even if a foreign national, first. "I happen to believe this is misguided and wrong."

Well Mr Blair, I would say the same about you. Civil liberties exist to protect us all. Eroding them in an attempt to fight terrorism is an own goal.

Talking of British terror suspects Blair says:

"Over the past five or six years, we have decided as a country that except in the most limited of ways, the threat to our public safety does not justify changing radically the legal basis on which we confront this extremism. "Their right to traditional civil liberties comes first. I believe this is a dangerous misjudgment."

If it's a misjudgement then it's a misjudgement that people have spent centuries trying to achieve. Our civil liberties are the core of our free society, they can't be thrown away for short term gain.

People sometimes wonder why I support the civil liberties of people suspected of terrorism. It's because I support the civil liberties of people wrongly suspected of terrorism.

That might one day be you.

Blair civil liberties Tony Blair UK politics ukpolitics

Labels: civil liberties, Tony Blair