Archive for the ‘Civil Liberties’ Category
Former Head Spook Attacks UK Government
In an interview given to the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia, Dame Stella Rimington, the former head of the UK’s spooks, has attacked UK’s government for, “frightening people in order to be able to pass laws, which restrict civil liberties.”
Dame Stella, 73, became the first woman director general of MI5, the UK’s counter intelligence agency, in 1992. She served in that capacity until 1996. She has long been an outspoken critic of New Labour’s attacks on civil liberties.
In the interview, published in The Daily Telegraph, she said, “Since I have retired, I feel more at liberty to be against certain decisions of the Government, especially the attempt to pass laws, which interfere with people’s privacy.”
Popularity: 8% [?]
Anti-Terror Law Used in Credit Crises
UK uses anti-terrorist legislation to seize assets of Icelandic banks
The UK government has used a law introduced combat terrorism to freeze £4 billion (US$6.84 billion) of assets of the Icelandic bank, Landsbanki. There is no suggestion that Landsbanki was involved in financing terrorism.
When questioned in Parliament, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury Stephen Timms confirmed that the freezing order had been issued under the 2001 Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act, saying, “that’s where the power happened to be.” The act was introduced the in the climate of fear generated by the 9-11 attacks. At the time, there was concern that it was open to abuse.
The Icelandic government had taken control of Landsbanki on Oct 7, taking control of a second bank, Glitnir, the following day. The accounts of some 300,000 UK savers with Icesave, Landsbanki’s online subsidiary, were frozen. The UK had expected Iceland’s depositor compensation scheme to cover UK savers up to £16,000 ($27,340). This would have cost an estimated £2.2 billion ($3.76 billion).
Popularity: 1% [?]
Ban Smoking from Enclosed Public Places
In our liberal societies we normally only curtail individual liberty if there is a good reason to do so. Therefore, this question becomes “Is there good reason to ban smoking from public places?” To answer this, the debate on passive smoking needs to be visited.
Passive Smoking
Passive smoking is the act of breathing in second-hand smoke.
Tobacco smoke contains over 4000 chemicals in the form of particles and gases. These include tar, nicotine, benzene, carbon monoxide, ammonia, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide. It has been estimated that tobacco smoke contains as many as 60 substances which cause – or are suspected of causing – cancer.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Parliament Square Protest
Approximately 100 people turned up for the demo in Parliament square yesterday.
See Rachel, The Guardian, The BBC
Popularity: 3% [?]
A Demonstration is Planned
In Parliament Square for tomorrow, Thursday 31 August at 6pm
Demonstration held within one kilometre of Parliament Square must be licensed. So each protester has applied for a “lone protest” licence. The idea is to highlight the ridiculous nature of this law by causing police to process a large number of licences.
The need to licence such demonstrations was tagged onto to last year’s Serious Organised Crime and Police Act in order to end anti-war protester Brian Haw‘s long running anti-war vigil. Something it failed to do.
Popularity: 2% [?]
