Tony Blair has written up his beliefs on Liberty in today’s Observer. I want to give it a good going over, and may do so later, but am busy. In the meantime, Charlie at Perfect is on the case:

The prime minister also seems to believe that liberty is a zero-sum game: you can’t have more of it, you can only shift it around. In his view, it’s all about achieving the right ‘balance’. His rhetoric is, likewise, ‘balanced’, although - in this case - bizarre

Go read, both. If anyone else want’s to point out the many obvious flaws in Tired Tony’s arguments then feel free to go ahead, I’ll try to add links in to any others that appear.

Update: This, by Longrider:

No, it is not, you dissembling poltroon. Organised crime has always been ugly - unless Al Capone was pretty? Or, closer to home, the east end gangs such as the Krays, were sweet boys really? Modernity is not an excuse to sweep away our freedoms - only a charlatan would believe it so. There is nothing new here that was not here before.

Update 2: D-Notice (who happens to be a lawyer by trade) here:

He doesn’t mention the Government and other public bodies cannot be stopped from using laws that breach the HRA and that if a law is declared to be “incompatible” with the HRA then it’s up to Parliament to decide whether to amend the law; if so, good; if not, tough!

Update 3: Blairwatch:

IRA terrorism was different in nature and scale… there was a hell of a lot more of it. No muslim group has set off as many bombs as the IRA did, or killed as many people as the Loyalists did. But Tony’s trying to change the subject. Notice how he says it’s not about civil liberties but about modernity. Utter guff.

Update 4: Garry at Curious Hamster:

What’s possibly more worrying is that, while I’m almost certain that Blair doesn’t realise it, there are distinct facist undertones here. The state will guarantee your liberty to live your life in the way that the state demands. For the good of the nation.

Blair isn’t a facist. He is, I suspect, ignorant as to exactly what facism is. He certainly doesn’t understand that a government official with unrestricted power poses a greater danger to our society than a disaffected youth in a hoodie or a terrorist.

That’ll be me last update; any more, see comments, etc; if anyone’s interested, more will likely pop up in the Bloglines Citations. Update 5: I lied, so sue me. Tim and Tim have more, both rather good, so worth a look as well.

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