Sunday, June 10, 2007

Taking Liberties

You must go and see the film 'Taking Liberties', essential viewing. It's far from flawless, in fact technically it's all a bit sloppy. But the film is driven by a strong and compelling polemic that the Blair government are slowly eroding our basic civil liberties. Whether you believe that we are already living in a police state or not the argument put forward in this film will leave you very unsettled.
It covers such shocking incidents as the Fairford Peace protestors who were locked on their coaches and forcibly taken back to London. An act that contravenes the government's own Human Rights Act. And the arrests of the two students arrested for reading out the names of dead Iraqis at the Cenotaph in Whitehall.
The situation is even grimmer than the film suggests with the introduction of new stop and search powers for the police and PM-elect Gordon Brown voicing support for a 90 day dentention period without charge - things that would have been abhorant (and illegal) even in the Middle Ages.
But don't just go and see the film, join the fightback. I shall be going down to Parliament Square on June 20th to join Mark Thomas' Mass Lone Demonstrations ('Return Tothill to the Druids!' will be my protest). Or sign up against ID cards with the NO2ID campaign (ironic that they want a lot of details from you to join the campaign though). Or just write a lot of annoying letters to your MP.

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