Tag Archives: liberty

Opinion: Lib Dems need to wake up to drastic implications of legal aid cuts

By Alex Paul | Published 28th September 2011 - 2:55 pm

Lib Dem Voice last week featured a brief post on the Coalition’s plans for legal aid reform. But this is an important change that’s been passed with barely a murmur from any Lib Dem MPs, when in fact it strikes at a principle at the heart of the party – civil liberties.

The bill in which this change is contained, the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill, is currently making its way through the House of Commons. For something that will have fairly drastic effects on many people’s access to justice there has been relatively little talk …

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The Independent View: Social media – no longer an easy target

By Peter Bradwell | Published 26th August 2011 - 11:08 am

Open Rights Group, alongside 9 other human right groups including Amnesty UK, Liberty and Index on Censorship, yesterday wrote to the Home Secretary, Rt Hon Theresa May MP. We were responding to the Prime Minister’s comments that the Government will “look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality”.

The letter was written to coincide with a meeting that took place at lunchtime yesterday between the Home Secretary and Twitter, Facebook and Research in Motion, to discuss what that …

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Julian Huppert MP writes: It’s time to bail out TPIMs

By Julian Huppert MP | Published 29th June 2011 - 11:55 am

Labour’s approach to dealing with the threat of terrorism was illiberal and ineffective. The regime they built was topped off by control orders, which remain one of the most odious elements of their legacy. These orders totally bypassed due legal process, establishing a bewildering clandestine world of secret evidence, special advocates and draconian restrictions that would have made Kafka blush.

The irony was that all this authoritarian paraphernalia, which did great damage to civil liberties many of us had previously taken for granted, failed utterly to achieve its intended purpose. Not a single person subject to a control order has ever …

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Government consults over ending 28 days pre-charge detention and control orders

By Mark Pack | Published 25th June 2010 - 9:20 am

Following on from the welcome news of the review into ending Labour’s policy of detaining children for immigration purposes, yesterday a wide-ranging review into anti-terrorism measures was announced. (It’s a review that I of course have rather an interest in.)

Liberty’s take on the review is:

Help us end 28 day detention

Pre-charge detention refers to the length of time you can be locked up and questioned before you face a charge. In that time you may be unaware of what you are accused of, and unable to challenge the evidence against you. The current period for terror suspects is 28

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Opinion: Healthy scepticism alive and well among Liberty’s ranks

By Jo Shaw | Published 16th June 2010 - 2:20 pm

At the weekend Liberty held its AGM. Jo Shaw was there…

We are, as our esteemed director, Shami Chakrabarti said on Saturday “a gobby lot”. In that, the Liberty membership share much in common with the membership of the Lib Dems. Both share a tradition of being unwilling to shut up, of asking difficult questions and not necessarily toeing the line which might be expected or helpful for the leadership.

Liberty was formed 76 years ago in response to police brutality against protestors against hunger and unemployment. Police tactics at demonstrations and the politics of dissent are currently high in …

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CommentIsLinked@LDV: Nick Clegg – Governments that can’t be scrutinised will always turn oppressive

By The Voice | Published 9th June 2009 - 11:10 am

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg’s speech to celebrate the 75th anniversay of Liberty is excerpted over at the Independent. Here’s his sombre conclusion:

for all the complaining Liberal Democrats and other liberty campaigners do about the misuse of power by government, the truth is, nowhere near all of the powers available to police and government are used – yet. Legal instruments with devastating potential are ready and waiting, all of which have been passed by a supine Parliament that misguidedly assumes government will always be benign. These powers are like the silent machines in a darkened factory, waiting for the

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