Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
In his speech Restoring British Liberties (dated January 7, 2011), Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg talked about the freedom and the “hard-won liberties” that people in Britain have held dear. He talked about the standards of a nation that have been the hallmarks of a civilized society to which people who are victims of oppression in other places around the world have looked to as a beacon of hope…as an example of a better way of life.
Clegg claimed that in recent times under Labour many of Britain’s best traditions have suffered—and that many of its civil liberties “have been undermined, eroded, lost.”
Clegg said:
They[Labour] turned Britain into a place where schools can fingerprint your children without their parents’ consent. Where councils use surveillance powers designed to tackle crime to check if you’re cleaning up after your dog. Where thousands of new criminal offences have amassed on to the statute book. Where you are 7 times more likely to be stopped and searched by the police if you are black or Asian. Where, in one year, we saw over 100,000 terror-related stop-and-searches, none of which yielded a single terror arrest.
They made Britain a place where you could be put under virtual house arrest when there was not enough evidence to charge you with a crime. And with barely an explanation of the allegations against you. A place where young, innocent children caught up in the immigration system were placed behind bars. A Britain whose international reputation has been brought into question because of our alleged complicity in torture.
That record is an affront to everything we stand for.
It has created a fundamental imbalance between British citizens and the British state; disempowering individuals, criminalising innocent people, fuelling mistrust between communities, and diminishing this nation’s moral authority too.
Clegg went on to enumerate the ways in which the Coalition Government would address the problems in 2011, which included the following:
Three: by ending the practices of closed and secretive government; giving people the information and freedom they need to hold us and other institutions to account.
Does any of what Clegg said ring familiar to you? Do you believe that some of our civil liberties have been undermined and eroded in this country—especially over the past decade? Do you think that we Americans need to be ever vigilant about the loss of our “hard-won” freedoms? Do you think that “we the people” should have the freedom and information that we need to hold our political leaders and government institutions to account?
Source: Liberal Democrats
I was looking for more/updated information about this senseless tragedy when I came across this.
http://politicallyillustrated.com/index.php?/lpnh/2170/
See the image on the upper left.
Who? Who, could decide to use such an inappropriately morbid image?
I don’t know anything about the politics of the website.
From Reuters (less than 15 minutes ago): Congresswoman Giffords shot, badly wounded in Arizona
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110108/us_nm/us_usa_shooting_congresswoman
Elaine, I am REALLY sorry about intruding on your thread, which is a good one. It was a knee-jerk reaction to hearing the news. Is it possible for you to separate the postings regarding the shooting into another thread if they becomes a serious contamination? Again, I apologize.
Arizona was already in the headlines for turning down organ transplants for people who had been waiting for those operations due to “budget”constraints.
This will really put a spotlight on Arizona and its medical services.
Blouise:
They say that they captured the gunman.I know everyone wants to know his background,motive etc.
eniobob
1, January 8, 2011 at 2:52 pm
The chill of the 1960s is in the air.
===============================================
Exactly the flash-back I experienced
“Clegg went on to enumerate the ways in which the Coalition Government would address the problems in 2011, which included the following:
Three: by ending the practices of closed and secretive government; giving people the information and freedom they need to hold us and other institutions to account.”
—
His statement was excellent and I look forward to reading about just how his government does that, if it can. It would be nice to see one english speaking nation return to sanity and some measure of respect for it’s citizens rights. I don’t think that’s going t happen here for quite a while.
Official from the Tucson hospital:
Giffords is “now undergoing surgery”.
This is why Twitter etc. are unreliable. Everyone wants to get the scoop.
The chill of the 1960s is in the air.
Updates are saying that the Congresswoman is still alive and in surgery.
Here is a link to a live feed via the Examiner.
http://www.examiner.com/us-headlines-in-national/live-streaming-breaking-news-and-events
yes they have been going down the tubes for years. the rate seems to have increased after 9/11. terrorism is being used to enlarge the state. it is scary.
Congresswoman, 6 Others, Killed By Gunman
http://www.npr.org/2011/01/08/132764367/congresswoman-shot-in-arizona
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and six others died after a gunman opened fire at a public event on Saturday, member station KJZZ in Phoenix has confirmed.
The Pima County, Ariz., sheriff’s office told news director Mark Moran the 40-year-old Democrat was killed.
Giffords, who was re-elected to her third term in November, was hosting a “Congress on Your Corner” event at a Safeway in northwest Tucson when a gunman ran up and started shooting, according to Peter Michaels, news director of Arizona Public Media.
Giffords was talking to a couple when the suspect ran up and fired indiscriminately from about four feet away, Michaels said.
The suspect ran off and was tackled by a bystander. He was taken into custody. Witnesses described him as in his late teens or early 20s.
Giffords was first elected to represent Arizona’s 8th District in 2006. The “Congress on Your Corner” events allow constituents to present their concerns directly to her.
Giffords was married to astronaut Mark Kelly, a veteran of Desert Storm. They have two children.
Not much news yet, although here is a local media source that usually has video of recent events.
http://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?S=13807677
OTOTOTOT Sorry Elaine:
“Gabrielle Giffords, a Democratic congresswoman from Arizona, was shot today at a public event outside a grocery store …”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/08/gabrielle-giffords-shot-c_n_806211.html
She’s a Dem, pretty liberal and her campaign office has been subject to vandalism over the healthcare vote. There was a previous incident of shooting into the office. As many as 12 people possibly wounded at the event. Watching MSNBC but the reports are sketchy.
Bdaman,
Do you have an opinion about the Internet ID? Do you think our civil liberties have been eroded and undermined in this country in the past decade?
Obama Eyeing Internet ID for Americans
STANFORD, Calif. – President Obama is planning to hand the U.S. Commerce Department authority over a forthcoming cybersecurity effort to create an Internet ID for Americans, a White House official said here today.
It’s “the absolute perfect spot in the U.S. government” to centralize efforts toward creating an “identity ecosystem” for the Internet, White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt said.
The Obama administration is currently drafting what it’s calling the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, which Locke said will be released by the president in the next few months. (An early version was publicly released last summer.)
“We are not talking about a national ID card,” Locke said at the Stanford event. “We are not talking about a government-controlled system. What we are talking about is enhancing online security and privacy and reducing and perhaps even eliminating the need to memorize a dozen passwords, through creation and use of more trusted digital identities.”
The Commerce Department will be setting up a national program office to work on this project, Locke said.
Details about the “trusted identity” project are unusually scarce. Last year’s announcement referenced a possible forthcoming smart card or digital certificate that would prove that online users are who they say they are. These digital IDs would be offered to consumers by online vendors for financial transactions.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-20027837-501465.html
Yes … my mistake … I knew that and should have used his name as the source rather than yours as the presenter of the article.
Blouise,
“It has created a fundamental imbalance between British citizens and the British state; disempowering individuals, criminalising innocent people, fuelling mistrust between communities, and diminishing this nation’s moral authority too.”
I just want to clarify that I didn’t write the above–Nick Clegg did.
“It has created a fundamental imbalance between British citizens and the British state; disempowering individuals, criminalising innocent people, fuelling mistrust between communities, and diminishing this nation’s moral authority too.” (Elaine)
Here it began as a crevice or crevasse between the citizens and the state, a small crack easily ignored and stepped over without thought; it slowly spread and widened into a chasm, a marked and deep division that is impossible to ignore. The government no longer trusts the citizen and the citizen is afraid of the government.