White Rose is a protest blog collective focusing on civil liberties in the UK.
It was set up to point a finger at the erosion of personal freedom in the UK.
Government's active measures introduce new means of control such as identity cards and surveillance cameras, the passive measures such as weakening of double jeopardy and presumption of innocence.


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White Rose contributors are those bloggers and non-bloggers who oppose restrictions on personal liberties.

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Monday, August 22, 2005
Depressing news from The Guardian
Guy Herbert (London)
(1)   Civil liberties

Gustave Le Bon would have something to say about this. He'd point to the sugestibility of the emotionally aroused crowd:

Almost three-quarters of the public believe that it is right to give up civil liberties to improve our security against terrorist attacks.

A Guardian/ICM poll published today shows that 73% of respondents back the trade-off, with only 17% rejecting it outright. The results provide evidence of public support for Tony Blair's anti-terrorist reforms which he unveiled before leaving on his summer holiday earlier this month.

Full article here.

I simply do not accept there is a trade-off to be had. Our liberty is our safety.

The world is replete with counterexamples to the trade-off twitch. (One cannot call it a theory.)

Take Saudi Arabia. Civil liberty does not exist there. It is an alien concept, and, in common with other alien concepts, banned. There is no protection of citizen from state, and no limit to the actions that can be taken.

Yet terrorism is in robust health. The Kingdom's official figures for the last two years (which one would expect to paint the rosiest picture) are 129 dead and 720 injured among civilians and security forces. More than twice Britain's casualties among a population that may be around a third of ours--reliable figures on anything Saudi being hard to come by. (They probably have significantly more police, too.)


Comments

''They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.''
- Ben Franklin

Posted by: Guess on August 23, 2005 05:14 AM

This is scary.

It shows that the propaganda foisted on the public by our Dear Leader, Kim-Il Blair and his cretinous cabinet is unfortunately working.

What on earth can we do to change the mind of the public? We've had worse terrorism than this since 1969, and there is NO justification for the Government making this concerted attack on our civil liberties.

And the terrifying thing is that people are not only permitting it, which is bad enough - they're SUPPORTING it!

Benjamin Franklin said "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety".

We have to put the brakes on the runaway train of legislation careering through this Parliament - before we wake up one day and find we're living in Airstrip One.

Neil

Posted by: Neil on September 3, 2005 08:37 AM
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