I will be attending the Convention on Modern Liberty on the 28th of this month in London along with other members of the LPUK. When I was first alerted to this event I was quite excited that at last we have a cross party consensus and pressure group that will campaign against the surveillance society created over the last twenty years.
The NCC of the LPUK offered to put a speaker up alongside the raft of speakers from the Left, the Social (Lib) Dems, the Greens, UKIP and the Conservatives. The offer was not actually declined but just ignored, but thanks received for advertising the event on our various websites.
After travelling in hope about this event I am now as ‘Tom Paine’ has put it now only travelling in curiosity as I have been drawn to a number of disturbing indicators of the drift of this Convention and some of the chosen speakers.
First was Shami Chakrabarti CBE’s signal failure to take a stand about the Geert Wilder’s affair. As a keynote speaker at the Convention, her silence then is going to speak louder than her words on the 28th.
If she of all people cannot understand that allowing somebody to speak does not equate to agreeing with them,then this is going to be a poor showing.
Chris Huhne MP of the ‘Social’ Democrats, also somebody who actively supported the ban of a Dutch MP speaking on the Parliamentary Estate, and even entering the country to the fury of the Dutch Government, even though Wilders had spoken there last December. Huhne is also a keynote speaker.
David Davis MP (Con) is a keynote speaker, yet the Conservatives silence as a ‘Champions of Liberty’ was palpable on the same subject.
The Conservatives also seem to be just about tolerated at this Convention
this from Sunny Hundal who is running the bloggers corner on the day,( Old Holborn Site has not received an invite despite being in the top fifteen influential political blogs)
The mainstream liberal-left has become far too accommodating of encroaching state power in recent years, justifying it simply because a supposedly left-wing government was in power.
For me, the left should always be suspicious of state power because it is usually biased towards powerful vested interests against the rights of the common woman or man.
The main organisers: openDemocracy and Liberty, have also brought in partners including NO2ID, Amnesty UK, Unlock Democracy, the Guardian and more. There are even organisations on the right such as the Countryside Alliance and some Tories. I think its time we accepted that in order to win the battle on civil liberties, we have to involve everyone, not just the left.
(My emphasis)
Fairly clear where he is coming from, that it is the Left that will stop State encroachment, whereas the LPUK believes that it is the left in the form of a Stalinist Labour Party that has led the growth of the Surveillance and Police State.
The Left have subborned the Charitable sector with ‘gifts’ of money if they will toe the party line. They now call this the ‘ third sector’. For Christs sake they even want the WI to be the Anti Prostitution Police.
Control of the Police, Anti-terrorism and counter insurgency has passed to a private limited company ACPO, with the blessing of the Home Secretary and HM Loyal opposition.
Innocents like Jean-Charles De Menezes are gunned down in the street, nobody is prosecuted, the Police lie on oath in Court to cover the incident up, and Cressida Dick is promoted.
As from last Monday it is illegal to take photographs of the Police and security agents (protests outside New Scotland Yard, not covered in the Mainstream Media). However the Police are empowered to film you and keep records of your movements.
The BBC is now a byword for the Ministry of Truth since the ousting of Chairman and CEO after Hutton.
The Government have actually proposed smart cards to be installed in cars to monotor where they are.
Despite the protests and continual loss of Data, they are still pushing ahead with ID cards.
Stella Rimmington ex Head of MI5 says we are in a Police State, McNumpty in the Home Office derides her expert opinion. Why has Dame Stella not been invited as a guest speaker.
I could go on and readers of this site will be continually aware of where we are coming from-
As we are going to be denied a voice at this Convention let me tell you what the Libertarian stance is on this Convention.
We will actively support the aims and objectives of the Convention as long as it is inclusive of all political thought and belief. We will not support it if it is yet another attempt by the State and its supporters to actively control and contain the rightful protest of the people of this country against the intrusive and ever growing State.
We hold that a large State that seeks to provide the solutions to every social problem and directs what is and is not acceptable behaviour, and to those ends maintains a large public sector through punitive taxation, is the very cause of a repressive and intrusive State.
For those who are financially excluded from attending through redundancy,unemployment and subsistence wages caused by over taxation, and generally not being one of the Righteous, LPUK South East are organising an Alternative Convention on Modern Liberty at The Friend at Hand Pub, Russell Square at 12 Noon.
The very name ‘Modern’ Liberty fills me with the same dread as ‘New’ Labour. If this means subscribing to a top down affirmation of you will be allowed Liberty as long as you give undying support to the State, that is not Liberty, that is doublespeak for slavery.
….governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whatever form of government becomes destructive of these ends; it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it.
Jefferson