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Tuesday 2 March 2010, liberty central blog, Guardian
Supporters of the Human Rights Act must accept that it has not stopped Labour laying waste to rights and liberties
Read more at the guardian website...
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Tuesday 2 March 2010, liberty central blog, Guardian
Doctors are concerned about the rapid roll-out of the patient database, and are helping people who don't want to be on it
Read more at the guardian website...
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Monday 1 March 2010, liberty central blog, Guardian
David Cameron has disappointed on the issue of liberty and Labour has been a disaster. Will the Lib Dems speak out?
Read more at the guardian website...
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Sunday 28 February 2010, The Observer
News International's dismissal of the parliamentary report on the News of the World phone scandal just shows their contempt for the law, MPs and other media
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Thursday 25 February 2010, liberty central blog, Guardian
Some 20,000 council officers can enter our homes without a warrant, and the Tories are right to want to challenge this
Read more at the guardian website...
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Saturday 20 February 2010, liberty central blog, Guardian
The public has grown increasingly concerned about the rise of the state's surveillance culture, according to a new poll
Read more at the guardian website...
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Wednesday 17 February 2010, liberty central blog, Guardian.co.uk
The former minister's sudden enthusiasm for empowerment is at odds with his support for statism while in cabinet
Read more at the guardian website...
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Monday 15 February 2010, liberty central blog, Guardian
The Independent's article sanctioning torture is built on logical flaws, grotesque views and a contempt for democracy
Read more at the guardian website...
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Sunday 14 February 2010, The Observer
It was great last week to see MPs try to take back control of Westminster from the party machines
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Friday 12 February 2010, liberty central blog, Guardian
In trying to justify the retention of DNA of innocent people, the Home Office attempted to use the same case study twice
Read more at the guardian website...
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Thursday 11 February 2010, liberty central blog, Guardian
For a newspaper that is consistently against torture, Con Coughlin's vitriolic article about Binyam Mohamed is shocking
Read more at the guardian website...
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9 February 2010, The Guardian
Although violent crime is down, the police are increasingly using guns to make bungled, inaccurate and potentially deadly raids
Read more at the guardian website...
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Friday 5 February 2010, liberty central blog, Guardian
Despite Francesca Klug's claims, lawyers armed with the Human Rights Act are not enough to defend our freedoms
Read more at the guardian website...
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Monday 1 February 2010, liberty central blog, guardian.co.uk
Encouraged by terror laws, the authorities are increasingly using surveillance techniques in trivial circumstances
Read more at the guardian website...
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Wednesday 27 January 2010, liberty central blog, Guardian
From Tony Blair to Lord Goldsmith, the rush to war was led by politician-lawyers, and the most culpable should be disbarred
Read more at the guardian website...
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Tuesday 26 January 2010, liberty central blog, Guardian
Saturday's debate in Cornwall proved two things: senior police are intelligent people, and the public embraces open debate
Read more at the guardian website...
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Monday 25 January 2010, liberty central blog, Guardian
After a flight was delayed, passengers reported shockingly aggressive policing. Are the public just scum to officers?
Read more at the guardian website...
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Sunday 24 January 2010, The Observer
What we need now is a great repeal bill that restores all that Labour has taken from us
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Wednesday 20 January 2010, liberty central blog, Guardian
The decision not to prosecute a doctor for accessing the health records of well-known patients raises wider privacy issues
Read more at the guardian website...
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Monday 18 January 2010, liberty central blog, Guardian
A new bill restricting sweeping government powers of entry is desperately needed to restore the sanctity of our homes
Read more at the guardian website...
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Tuesday 12 January 2010, liberty central blog, Guardian
The European court of human rights ruling against the use of Section 44 stop and search powers is hugely important
Read more at the guardian website...
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Tuesday 12 January 2010, liberty central blog, Guardian
A judgement in the US adds to the case that the routine deployment of tasers in the UK should be examined
Read more at the guardian website...
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Friday 8 January 2010, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
When armed officers tackle a group of young men in fancy dress, there is something amiss in Britain's police
Read more at the guardian website...
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Thursday 7 January 2010, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
The inept policing of public space is preventing reporters and photographers from going about their lawful business
Read more at the guardian website...
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Wednesday 6 January 2010, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
Labour has undermined civil liberties in favour of an overmighty centralised state. This must be a central election issue
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Thursday 31 December 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
Sadly the government has not lost its ambition to create a highly controlled and monitored society – but it's not all bad news
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Monday 21 December 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
Jack Straw has squandered money on new offices while cuts in legal aid pave the way for miscarriages of justice
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Sunday 20 December 2009, The Observer
Jack Straw's video links to magistrates' courts threaten young and vulnerable defendants in jail
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Thursday 17 December 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
Labour likes to take the credit for better crime stats yet wants to roll out weapons that leave the police open to claims of abuse
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Monday 14 December 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
The criteria has changed slightly, but the Vetting and Barring Scheme still creates an atmosphere of suspicion and fear
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Sunday 13 December 2009, The Observer
For a government that makes much of its record on protecting children from cruelty and abuse, it is extraordinary that the truth about Yarl's Wood is that it damages terribly the children held there
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Wednesday 9 December 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
There was a great turnout for the Hansard Society debate on civil liberties – shame about the speakers
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Monday 7 December 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
The kind of protection the HRA offers is largely of use only to the rich. The law should tackle everyday intrusions head on
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Saturday 5 December 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
The abuse of section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 is infringing on the freedom of photographers – it has to stop
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Tuesday 1 December 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
In its many intrusive policies, the government displays a fundamental mistrust of parents and children
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Monday 30 November 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
There is a new alliance between the left and right in America, inspired by the threat to liberty – can the same happen here?
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Friday 27 November 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
No one denies that Gary McKinnon did wrong and that he should face criminal proceedings – but in Britain not the United States
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Wednesday 25 November 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
The DNA database does not balance liberty with the needs of the state, the state's unreasonable demand has eroded liberty
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Tuesday 24 November 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
2,000 asylum seekers' kids a year are locked up, and the only beneficiaries seem to be firms running centres like Yarl's Wood
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Wednesday 18 November 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
Full marks to the students who complained to their headteacher about the intrusive taking of fingerprints in their school
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Tuesday 17 November 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
Student activism has often fired resistance to repression – and it must urgently do so now
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Friday 13 November 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
It is difficult not to agree with the Liberal Democrats when they accuse the Conservatives of double standards on state powers
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Thursday 12 November 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
Last night the inventor of DNA profiling, Sir Alec Jeffreys, condemned the government's plans, announced yesterday, to keep the DNA of innocent people on the national DNA database for six years in defiance of a ruling by the European court of human rights.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Tuesday 10 November 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
The government has delayed legislation that would allow it to track our phone and internet use – but that won't be the end of it
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Monday 9 November 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
Government attempts to override a free speech clause in a homophobic hatred bill illustrate its determination to attack rights
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Sunday 8 November 2009, The Observer
Twenty years after I watched the Berlin Wall fall, I worry that the hope it inspired is being slowly crushed
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Thursday 5 November 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
It is difficult to think of two more sinister New Labour figures than Phil Woolas, minister for immigration, and Lady Delyth Morgan, parliamentary under-secretary for children. They are joined in unholy alliance in the foreword to the new government guidelines on safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children under section 55 of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Wednesday 4 November 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
Let's see if we can tease out the logic of the latest New Labour backflip. The former foreign office minister Kim Howells suggests that the policy in Afghanistan is not working and it is time to consider withdrawing troops and putting the money saved as result into the UK Border Agency and greater surveillance and monitoring in Britain.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Wednesday 4 November 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
Let's see if we can tease out the logic of the latest New Labour backflip. The former foreign office minister Kim Howells suggests that the policy in Afghanistan is not working and it is time to consider withdrawing troops and putting the money saved as result into the UK Border Agency and greater surveillance and monitoring in Britain.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Thursday 29 October 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
"In the areas of security and liberty many would argue (and I agree) that there has been too much legislation," wrote Charles Clarke last week. Some may experience a sense of vindication reading this but I believe the proper reaction is nearer scorn, for the article contains neither concession nor apology, but is merely an attempt to reposition Labour before the next election.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Wednesday 28 October 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
Listen to mayor Dorothy Thornhill. Her council has just banned parents
from watching their own children at two council play areas in Watford.
Quoted in the Watford Observer
this evidently simple-minded woman says, "Sadly, in today's climate,
you can't have adults walking around unchecked in a children's
playground."
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Wednesday 28 October 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
Listen to mayor Dorothy Thornhill. Her council has just banned parents from watching their own children at two council play areas in Watford. Quoted in the Watford Observer this evidently simple-minded woman says, "Sadly, in today's climate, you can't have adults walking around unchecked in a children's playground."
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Monday 26 October 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
The shocking Guardian report into the surveillance operations run by the police National Public Order Intelligence Unit makes it clear that the right of free protest in Britain now hangs in the balance, and that the very expression of opinion and attendance at meetings is enough for an individual to be categorised as an enemy of society.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Wednesday 21 October 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
If there's one minister whose every action betrays the menace of the government's intent it is Jack Straw. His malicious drive against freedom and openness is phenomenal.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Monday 19 October 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
The government's climbdown on proposals that the police should keep innocent people's DNA for between six and 12 years should not be mistaken for a change of heart, nor should we celebrate this as a victory for article 8, the right to privacy, of the Human Rights Act.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Sunday 18 October 2009, The Observer
The plight of the children of asylum seekers represents a sadly unexceptional failure of public conscience
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Wednesday 14 October 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
When dealing with the Home Office you become aware of the dim, dogged nature of a primitive life-form. Last week the department which runs the UK Border Agency issued a statement which appeared to suggest that it was retreating on the issue of gene tests being used to determine race and origin. Science and Nature magazines both attacked the plan, the former by quoting scientists and geneticists who were horrified at the idea of untested science being used by unknown scientists to decide a person's race and origin, and therefore future.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Tuesday 13 October 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
Sometimes things go right. Yesterday Jacqui Smith, the former home secretary, rose in parliament to apologise for nominating her main home in West Midlands as a second home; and a report was published vindicating Damian Green after the MP's arrest last November.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Sunday 4 October 2009, guardian.co.uk
Labour stripped away many civil liberties, and we should expect the Conservatives to do the same
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Friday 2 October 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
A Home Office experiment with the DNA of asylum seekers to establish their likely race and place of origin is causing outrage and alarm among scientists.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Tuesday 29 September 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
The
mildly jubilant scenes at the Labour party conference when Gordon Brown
announced that there would be no compulsory ID cards in the next
parliament tell you one thing: that people in the hall understand how
unpopular the ID card is and what a lead weight it will be at the next
election. But of course the speech makes little difference to the ID
card and by no means does it signal an end to the government's ID
management lunacy.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Friday 25 September 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
The rise in complaints against police in England and Wales by 8% to more than 30,000 individual grievances last year cannot be easily dismissed by the suggestion that people have simply become more aware of the complaints procedure. There are important underlying trends that the police and politicians would be wrong to ignore.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Thursday 24 September 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
One of the important elements of the government's desecration of liberty and rights – the use of "secret" evidence to impose control orders, or house arrest, on terror suspects – now looks to be in the advanced stages of decay. The home secretary, Alan Johnson, has written to lawyers representing a former imam known by the initials AE to say that in the light of the law lords' June ruling, the control order on their client will be revoked immediately.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Wednesday 23 September 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
"Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion," says the Human Rights Act. This freedom includes "the right to manifest his (or her) religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance." That's a fine aspiration but of course the Human Rights Act (HRA) isn't all it's cracked up to be by its supporters. Take the recent case of a 54-year-old nurse facing disciplinary action for wearing her confirmation cross, she was forced to accept an offer of redeployment to a non-nursing role at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Sunday 20 September 2009, The Observer
Even when out for dinner in a restaurant, we are not free from snooping CCTV cameras
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Friday 18 September 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
Dominic Grieve's policy paper Reversing the Rise of the Surveillance State is welcome but even though some important principles are expressed, it is difficult not to feel that the Conservatives are just doing enough to distinguish themselves from Labour before the next election.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Thursday 17 September 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
A poll run by PoliticsHome this week revealed a fascinating result to the question: "Do you think in general, the state has too much or too little of a say in what people can and cannot do?" Nearly four-fifths of the sample (79%) answered that the state had too much of a say, while only 8% believe the state has too little say.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Tuesday 15 September 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
There is a new phrase in law enforcement circles, although it is more about enforcing the state's prejudice than any law. It is the Potential Dangerous Person, or PDP. This label is given by Northumberland and Cleveland police forces to someone who is suspected of crimes but who has not been charged, let alone found guilty of an offence. Under this new designation they will be targeted as criminals, watched and no doubt harassed.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Sunday 13 September 2009, The Observer
In its final gibbering months this government continues to wage its tyrannical war on freedom
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Friday 11 September 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
When police stop and search two children under anti-terror measures there can be little doubt that a law, designed to prevent terrorism, is being roundly abused by officers who seem to enjoy the authority to question any innocent citizen they care to pick on.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Thursday 10 September 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
For two decades the police and Home Office have insisted that DNA evidence is 100% reliable and that the frantic acquisition of DNA samples from innocent people, as well those convicted of a crime, will make Britain a safer place. But today, on the 25th anniversary of Sir Alec Jeffrey's discovery of the genetic fingerprint, its worth examining important new research from Israel which proves that DNA evidence can be manipulated and that DNA samples may be fabricated. A disturbing possibility for those whose DNA profiles are kept on the police national DNA database.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Friday 4 September 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
A week or two away from the land of surveillance and you realise what a very strange place Britain has become. On my return from holiday I understood one frightening truth, which is that surveillance systems and databases have become as much a part of the country's infrastructure as the road or rail networks. No government, however liberal or determined, has the power to dismantle the apparatus that Labour has put in place.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Wednesday 2 September 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
No doubt some eyes among Salisbury's residents glided over the following little news story with a sense of reassurance but if you're like me you will find something deeply disturbing about it, especially in the unquestioning attitude of the newspaper. The reporter from the Salisbury Journal tells of an event held for schoolchildren at Salisbury Arts Centre with all the mild compliance of a trainee on the Communist party newspaper in east Berlin.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Tuesday 11th August 2009, Mail Online
Returning to Britain from a summer holiday abroad, you begin to notice things that perhaps escaped your attention before - the huge number of CCTV cameras that infest our public spaces and, much less obviously, the atmosphere of watchfulness and control that has now become a way of life. This is the regime that 12 years of New Labour have imposed on Britain, a place of unwavering suspicion, paranoia - and obsessive surveillance.
Click here to read more at Mail Online
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Monday 10 August 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
The government must be quietly grateful to the distractions of August. Only Computer Weekly noticed that nine local authority workers have been sacked for accessing the personal records of celebrities, and their acquaintances held on the core database of the government's ID scheme.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Friday 7 August 2009, The Independent
Spy fiction used to explore the murky no man's land between rival superpowers, but now the threat to freedom lurks far closer to home.
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Wednesday 5 August 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
The stupidity, waste of time and contempt involved in the new points based visa system for artists and academics wanting to visit the UK has been laid bare by a report from the home affairs select committee.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Monday 3 August 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
The communications industry has condemned government plans to force them to monitor your calls, emails and internet usage
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Sunday 2 August 2009, The Observer
This week, one of Parliament's most active bodies, the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR), made up of both peers and MPs, reports on the allegations of government involvement in and knowledge of the torture of terrorist suspects by foreign powers. If you're like me, you find it hard to read anything about torture, but this report is very important because it makes plain these barbaric practices have been commissioned in our name.
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Friday 31 July 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
The government's extradition of a UFO-obsessed hacker demonstrates the inequality of our relationship with the US
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Wednesday 29 July 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
Here are some recent examples of the stupid, suspicious society we are creating. What they reveal is a state of mind that reveres regulations and authority over common sense. This is not something that has been imposed on Britain. Rather we have succumbed to a climate of fear and unreason in the belief that we will somehow be safer. Read these links and mourn the loss of something essential to the national character.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Tuesday 28 July 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
In a excellent pamphlet produced by the Centre for Policy Studies, advocating a new Great Reform Act, the author of Yes Minister, Sir Antony Jay, writes that we are "governed by an increasingly self-serving almost unaccountable political class who are even further out of touch with the interests and wishes of the British people than were the rural aristocracy 200 years ago." These words came to mind when I read that a YouGov poll had found that 79% of the public are opposed to the ID card scheme on the grounds that they want the estimated £5bn cost of the scheme spent on something else.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Monday 27 July 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
Giving bouncers and hospital staff the right to access police records and issue fines opens up the potential for injustice
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Thursday 23 July 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
To live on the left is to live optimistically, writes my colleague Polly Toynbee. This may be true of Polly, whose smart idealism no one can deny, but I am afraid you couldn't say the same of New Labour, which has exhibited a profoundly pessimistic view of society since it came into power 12 years ago.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Wednesday 22 July 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
Where does the joylessness come from? Is there some central authority co-ordinating laws that result in the banning of musicians, artists and poets from British territory, the removal of unregistered tutors, entertainers and writers from contact with British children, or the perfectly nonsensical – and originally racist – form 696 that requires London music venues to give the names, private telephone numbers and addresses of all musicians appearing?
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Tuesday 21 July 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
This afternoon Paul Lewis has an interesting update to a story I wrote about in April: "Abuse of police powers is unexceptional". You may remember Gemma Atkinson, who was detained for filming a police search of her boyfriend – today her lawyers have launched a high court challenge against the police.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Monday 20 July 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
A critical issue concerning ID cards is the possibility that the tax authorities will be able to access the national identity register to inspect the spending habits of individuals, revealed by their history of identity verifications.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Sunday 19 July 2009, The Observer
Adults will find it hard to interact with young people if hysterical paranoia means they are all viewed as potential abusers
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Thursday 16 July 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
Photographer Alex Turner has been arrested by Kent police for being "too tall" in an action which must cast further doubt on the collective sanity of Kent Police (see Kingsnorth) and which also suggests that some police forces are now really behaving as if we lived in police state, a phrase that I have been reluctant to use.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Saturday 11 July 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
There are no words in the thesaurus of insult that quite do justice to the UK Border Agency and the minister for borders and immigration, Phil Woolas. So let's just agree that new rules barring artists from visiting this country and so enriching our culture are some of the most contemptible ever devised, even by this narrow-minded apology for a government.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Wednesday 8 July 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
If Murdoch's papers really believe in public interest they should disclose all details of illegal phone hacking
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Tuesday 7 July 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
Today's report shows that, following G20, police don't just need to change their tactics but their whole attitude to political protests.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Monday 6 July 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
If you want a symbol of all that is vindictive and, frankly, dumb about New Labour it is the asbo. Until Alan Johnson became home secretary, this key Blairite response to antisocial behaviour looked as though it was quietly being allowed to die.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Thursday 2 July 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
Evidence presented to the home affairs select committee on Monday suggests that Britain's plans to use airline, ferry and train operators to collect 53 pieces of information from everyone leaving the country may be illegal under EU law.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Wednesday 1 July 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
liberty central hosts a virtual protest concert – film your song, put it up on YouTube and send us the link
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Tuesday 30 June 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
The announcement today that a compulsory ID card trial for airside workers has been dropped makes clear that the new home secretary, Alan Johnson, a good union man, is not going to take on the British Airline Pilots' Association and other unions in the runup to the next election.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Monday 29 June 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
Give local authorities a power and they abuse it. We have seen it with RIPA terror laws and the creation of largely useless CCTV systems: now the right to drink in public is being systematically attacked across the country by local authorities using powers to stop people having a good time in a park or a picnic with their friends.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Friday 26 June 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
News of the extraordinary state that Britain has got itself into has taken a long time to percolate to the outside world, but when people abroad begin to understand the extent to which the British have been robbed of their freedoms by the Labour government, they are astonished by the lack of reaction in parliament and from the people.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Thursday 18 June 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
A month ago I drew attention to the way in which the guillotine was being used by the government to cut short debate, when the pressures on parliament's timetable were in fact very few because of the huge holidays MPs were taking.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Wednesday 17 June 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
The two leading candidates in the race to be Speaker – John Bercow and Margaret Beckett – are simply not up to the job.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Tuesday 16 June 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
The video released of police officers punching and Tasering a man lying on the ground speaks for itself. Once you give a weapon like this to the British police it will be used and abused as a weapon of punishment and torture.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Thursday 11 June 2009, guardian.co.uk
A Stoke City fan has been awarded £2,750 after Greater Manchester Police prevented him from attending a match
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Wednesday 10 June 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
A customer relations officer from Ellesmere Port has been electronically tagged for two months, given a curfew and ordered to pay £2,440.66 in costs for leaving a 15-week-old kitten alone for two days.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Monday 8 June 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
Sixty years ago today George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four was published, and this evening, as though to mark the anniversary of Orwell's last book, the former head of GCHQ, Sir David Pepper, slips from the shadows to tell the BBC's Who's Watching You programme that it has become necessary for the government to record all data from phone and internet traffic in the fight against terror.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Friday 5 June 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
To place his chief rival for the premiership in the Home Office, that graveyard of political careers, which has seen the unhappy departure from government of four out of five Labour home secretaries must have given Gordon Brown a rare moment of saturnine pleasure during the reshuffle.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Thursday 4 June 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
We have a long way to go, but the first signs of an improvement in the civil liberties situation are showing
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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1 June 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
Despite a looming election defeat, this government is pushing through a
raft of legislative proposals that have no moral authority
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Sunday 31 May 2009, The Observer
Orwell said that our national detachment could be seen as a form of wisdom - but indifference has landed us in the mess we're in
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Monday 25 May 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
A lawyer and
genetic scientist has raised the disturbing possibility of false
matches being made in the police national DNA database (NDNAD). He
suggests that the DNA database – which at the end of September 2008 had
4,343,624, samples, including those from hundreds of thousands of
innocent people – is now so large that it is mathematically predicted
an innocent person will be matched to a crime they did not commit.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Sunday 24 May 2009, Guardian debate, Hay Festival
Henry Porter debates the motion 'Does the left still care about liberty?' in the Guardian's Hay debate.
Click here to listen to the speech at guardian.co.uk
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Friday 22 May 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
In a speech two weeks ago, Jack Straw mocked my suggestion that Britain's pupils were being groomed for the surveillance society. I wonder how the justice secretary reacts to a story from Davenant Foundation School in Loughton, Essex, where pupils walked out of classrooms that were fitted with CCTV cameras – on the grounds that their civil liberties were being breached – and refused to return until the camera system had been turned off.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Thursday 21 May 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
A new study reveals that popular social networking sites including Facebook and MySpace retain copies of users' 'deleted' photos
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Wednesday 20 May 2009, guardian.co.uk
Statutory instruments greatly increase the power of the executive and allow ministers to avoid public and critical scrutiny
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Tuesday 19 May 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
A Home Office report confirms that the vast spending on CCTV systems is almost certainly unjustified
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Monday 18 May 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
We can't allow the government to introduce legislation which allows the ID card database to be used for tax enforcement
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Sunday 17 May 2009, The Observer
The anger is wholly
new. During BBC Question Time with Sir Menzies Campbell and Margaret
Beckett, I thought the audience might be minded to let poor Ming off
with 20 years' hard labour, but that it would surely offer no mercy to
the most heavily protected caravan enthusiast in the world, who has
refused to pay back £72,000 claimed on her properties and displayed a
defiance not seen since Elena Ceausescu was led from court and propped
up against a convenient wall.
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Friday 15 May 2009, Henry Porter
A reaction was certainly to be expected after the Convention on Modern Liberty in February and commentators have rushed to deny that there is any such thing as a crisis of liberty and rights in Britain. What’s striking about the blowback is not so much the similarity of style and approach but the expression of unworldly faith in the state.
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Friday 15 May 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
Just in case anyone thought the government had resigned itself to the certainty that ID cards would be abolished, here are the new draft orders laid before parliament under the Identity Cards Act 2006
Thanks to Spy blog
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Thursday 14 May 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
It is worryingly easy to access personal information – no matter how much of it is stored in a single database.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Wednesday 13 May 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
Ever since the shooting of barrister Mark Saunders at his home in Markham Square, London, it seems that the police have too often killed, rather than wounded, disturbed people threatening the public with weapons.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Monday 11 May 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
The scandal over MPs' expenses demonstrates the values and ethics of the people who have waged war on our liberties.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Friday 1 May 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
Julian Le Grand is a former adviser to Tony Blair, a London School of Economics academic and a contributor to that statist and authoritarian organ Prospect magazine. All of which may explain why he suggested in a lecture, this week, that people who have children out of wedlock should be automatically married by the state to stop them splitting up.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Thursday 30 April 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
It is fascinating to hear how old-fashioned New Labour sounds whenever it opens its mouth on the subject of terrorism.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Monday 27 April 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
Now the home secretary wants private telecoms companies and internet service providers do the government's dirty work.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Friday 24 April 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
It is cost rather than privacy concerns that will save us from Labour's megalomaniac surveillance schemes – a point underlined this morning when David Cameron was interviewed on the Today programme.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Thursday 23 April 2009, Liberty Central, guardian.co.uk
John Wilkes attacked the king for abuse of power nearly 250 years ago. He would recognise much in society today.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Wednesday 22 April 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
The Register recalls that in 2000, then National Criminal Intelligence Service director general John Abbott wrote to the Guardian with this assurance: Conspiracy theorists must not be allowed to get away with the ridiculous notion that law enforcement would or even could monitor all emails...
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Monday 20 April 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
The news that government officials have been passing intelligence on climate change activists to a power company serves to underline the unhealthy closeness between big business and the British government during the Labour years.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Sunday 19 April 2009, The Observer
Labour appears to agree with those campaigning against climate change, so why the vindictive action against them?
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Friday 17 April 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
The Home Office is reviewing RIPA laws that let councils spy on people, but only to preserve its own surveillance project.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Thursday 16 April 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
It's difficult not to agree with Damian Green's comment outside the House of Commons after he was given news that he would not be prosecuted: "I cannot think of a better symbol of an out of touch, authoritarian, failing government that has been in power for too long," he said.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Tuesday, 14 April 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
The arrest of 114 people on suspicion of conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass at Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station, near Nottingham, is extremely worrying and may be regarded as further indication of a style of policing that has developed under this appalling government and is undermining the values and needs of a free society.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Thursday 9 April 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
The shocking video of Ian Tomlinson being assaulted has led to concern
about oppressive policing – and last week I heard about another case of
intimidation.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Monday, 6 April 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
An EU directive compelling ISPs to retain information on individuals has been brought in without a debate in parliament.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Friday, 3 April 2009, Henry Porter's, guardian.co.uk
You'll have to give the government your name, date of birth and address under the proposed e-Borders scheme.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Wednesday, 1 April 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
"What is extraordinary is the weakness of the liberty lobby in opposition," writes Simon Jenkins in his column today. That is obviously so, but why?
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Monday, 30 March 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
It is difficult to feel much sympathy for Jacqui Smith, who launched
her latest attack on liberals over the weekend by putting the debate
about the balance between civil liberties and security in the context
of taxation.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Thursday, 26 March 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
While I agree with many of the points made in defence of the legislation, it is still useless in the face of state power
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Monday, 23 March 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
There comes a stage in a government's life when routine assessment concerning competence and managerial efficiency is replaced by questions about sanity. Reading Michael Wills musing about New Labour's plans for an enhanced bill of rights with all sorts of social and economic rights as well as defined responsibilities, I had that experience of watching an acquaintance descend into whimpering insanity.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Friday, 20 March 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
Rarely has there been a more pathetic arrest than that of 23-year-old university student Paul Saville, who was confronted by four members of Britain's new breed of petty minded police officers after writing in chalk on a pavement, "Liberty: the right to question. The right to ask: 'Are we free?"'
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Thursday, 19 March 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
In less than a week the justice secretary has withdrawn or modified three authoritarian provisions, which is certainly proof that campaigning does work and ministers do listen when they think that opposition might have an electoral impact.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Thursday, 19 March 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
In as much as his powers allow him, Conor Gearty has had a second attempt to defend Labour against those who suggest that the party has mounted a campaign against liberties and rights since 1997.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Tuesday, 17 March 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
When you meet a colleague sporting the remains of his breakfast egg on his chin, it can be amusing not to point it out. That is usually my policy with David Aaronovitch, the Times columnist who once said that if weapons of mass destruction were never found in Iraq, he would never, ever believe anything any government said again.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Thursday, 12 March 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
The report by the Liberal Democrats into policing at last year's climate camp demonstration at Kingsnorth power station is disturbing not because of any overtures of a police state but because it reveals Kent police's petty minded bullying tactics and a bewildering failure to respect basic liberties
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Thursday 12 March 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
Protest does work. Last month, Nick Gibson wrote to the Guardian to complain that he had been told he would not be given a licence for his pub, the Drapers Arms in Islington, London, unless he agreed to the police demand to install CCTV that took a head and shoulders shot of everyone entering
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Tuesday, 10 March 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
A retired senior police officer has expressed concern about the "sweeping power" that he claims is being abused on a daily basis in all of the 43 police forces.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Friday, 6 March 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
The Information Commissioner's investigation into the database held by the private detective Ian Kerr on thousands of building workers, which was allegedly used illegally by many of the big names in British construction, may reassure some that Britain has adequate powers to protect the public's privacy. This would be wrong.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Thursday, 5 March 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
Hidden by the spirit of the Convention On Modern Liberty was a row about the Human Rights Act, which I want to bring out into the open
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Tuesday, 3 March 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
I can tell you what was impressive about the Convention on Modern Liberty in a second. It was the complete lack of cynicism; it was people giving of their best, listening without interrupting, rising to the occasion, finding others as worried or as inspired as they were, making connections across the political spectrum, speaking with extraordinary eloquence and clarity, reaching out to the other point of view
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Sunday, 1 March 2009, The Observer
More than once, I asked myself - why the hell are we doing this? Putting on a convention with more than 150 speakers in eight different cities across the United Kingdom at the same time as maintaining an alliance of about 50 organisations, not all of whom loved one another - or us - with the weaving, ducking and diving that entails can be demanding
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Saturday, 28 February 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
Debates on freedom at the Convention on Modern Liberty have been intense and wide-reaching
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Friday, 27 February 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
Following my piece about terror searches near the Taking Liberties exhibition inside the British Library, I eventually received a statement from the British Library
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Thursday, 26 February 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
Police provided a real-life supplement to the Taking Liberties exhibition, stopping British Library visitors without a hint of irony
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Wednesday, 25 February 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
David Omand's national security strategy report shows us we have a very short time to save society from tyranny
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Monday, 23 February 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
Opposition is mounting to the government's ID card scheme. One reader's story demonstrates perfectly why it should not go ahead
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Friday, 20 February 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
The former MI5 chief's powerful message about the erosion of our liberties cannot be dismissed by government ministers
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Monday, 16 February 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
From today, it is illegal to photograph the police, despite the fact that they use increasingly aggressive techniques to record us
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Sunday, 15 February 2009, The Observer
At the very least, you might expect Labour MPs to pay attention while they strip this country of its freedoms
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Wednesday, 11 February 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
The police are forcing publicans to install CCTV before approving their licences
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Tuesday, 10 February 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
How can an organisation that is not subject to public scrutiny set up a sinister unit to monitor political and environmental groups?
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Monday, 9 February 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
Conor Gearty's difficulty is clear: this left-supported government is attacking liberty, rights and privacy in an indefensible way
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Friday, 6 February 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
The peers' view of the UK's surveillance society is a vindication for those fighting for civil liberties, and a warning for the future
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Wednesday, 4 February 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
From the evidence I've received, those having to deal with the UK Borders Agency find it inadequate, incompetent and costly
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Monday, 2 February 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
The pure joy of new snow has only been equalled in the last few days by watching two home secretaries slipping and sliding in the press
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Friday, 30 January 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
Writing from Washington in the Evening Standard, the columnist Andrew Gilligan looks wearily at British politicians who want a piece of the political renewal ushered in by President Obama...
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Thursday, 29 January 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
There will come a day when everyone understands that the Justice Minister Jack Straw ranks as one of the bigger menaces to our free society.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Wednesday, 28 January 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
to European Data Protection Day! One wonders how the British government and its thousands of incompetent agencies plan to mark this solemn date in the Euro-calendar.
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Monday, 26 January 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
I asked for a good, coherent argument for a UK database state. Was anyone brave enough to argue the government's case?
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Friday, 23 January 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
That careless fellow Jack Straw, who has just been ticked off for failing to list a donation with the register of members' interest, is no more diligent when it comes to the proposals contained in the coroners and justice bill that will allow government departments to sweep away laws that prevent sharing of people's data without their knowledge
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Thursday, 22 January 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.
Who, in government or outside it, can coherently tell me why it is a good idea to sacrifice our liberty and rights? There's money in it
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Monday, 19 January 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
Power has been given to the most minor officials to hurt and harass people. The new air of officiousness is unacceptable
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Sunday, 18 January 2009, The Observer
Next month, an extraordinary coalition will unite to fight for our liberties. I urge you to join us
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Thursday, 15 January 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
Open inquests are an inalienable right in a free society. The justice secretary must not be allowed to make them private
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Wednesday, 14 January 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
How debate and scrutiny has been eroded by the use of ministerial decree and clauses named after a 16th century tyrant
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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Saturday, 10 January 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk
The pattern of dodgy spin around Jacqui Smith and the Home Office hardly reinforces the case for ID cards. Rather the reverse
Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk
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