The largest ever British meeting of people against the surveillance society took place in London yesterday. The Convention on Modern Liberty site has (unedited) transcripts of some of the speeches an debates including author, Phillip Pullman’s excellent keynote. The Guardian/Observer website also has a strongly supportive report and there is an editorial in the The Observer, which argues that “whether by complacency, arrogance or cynical design, the government has erected an edifice of legal constraint to liberty that would suit the methods and aims of a despot.”
It was a shame that I couldn’t be there but I like to think I played some small part in the process that has led here, and will hopefully this campaign will continue to go on to forcing a retreat by the state from its illiberal course. This meeting is merely the beginning of the convention…
ubisurv 
Hi David, looks like you missed a cracker of a day. I was at the Glasgow satellite and have started adding some content and thoughts on my own blog.
I’ll definitely be back to spend more time with your posts.
Thanks – I should have mentioned this was nationwide and not just another London thing. Nothing in Newcastle (my home town) though – that certainly wouldn’t have been the case if I’d been in the country! I’ll check out your Glasgow report…
David,
Things aren’t any different here in the US. The Patriot Act(s) just “legalized” what the government had been doing for years. Human- and government- nature being what it is these abuses are inevitable, and, unfortunately, just as in the UK there are no effective checks & balances to these abuses. If interested in a real life real time chronology of such abuses, please either check out my blog or else go to http://capitolhillblue.com , click on “Reader Rants,” and check out the topic entitled: “Who’s Watching Big Brother?”
Joe
Hi Joe, thanks for that – I will certainly read it. I have been trying to cover things in the States now and again in this blog, especially around both CCTV and the ongoing NSA wiretapping business. My PhD was about NSA bases overseas, ECHELON etc. so I try to keep up!