Taking liberties with liberty
Monday, December 15, 2008 Since I launched this blog in March 2007 there has been a critically acclaimed film called Taking Liberties, and the British Library is currently hosting an exhibition, also called Taking Liberties. The latter was opened on 29 October by Gordon Brown (who else?) with lots of mutual backslapping.
Thankfully not everyone falls for the idea that Britain is a beacon of tolerance and liberty around the world and on The Free Society website Dennis Hayes, founder of Academics for Academic Freedom, offers his own - somewhat caustic - review of the exhibition.
In Taking Liberties you can join in the historical and contemporary debates by picking up a wristband and answering questions in each section. You even have a Citizen Number. I was Citizen Number 127659. Although you cannot be traced or identified, it is scarily New Labour, with a hint of childish wristband wearing activism.
At the end of the exhibition you can become part of the struggle for liberty by putting ‘Your Thoughts’ on a ‘post-it’ note on a wall. That’s what freedom of speech comes down to in the British Library – freedom of speech as graffiti or litter that no one reads.
Well, I did. The best comment I found was ‘I’m off to the pub’ and there is still more chance in contemporary Britain of getting into an argument about something of substance over a pint in a pub than playing at being a ‘citizen’ in this exhibition. That is until the government bans heated argument and sends free thinkers out to stand and shiver with the smokers.
Full article HERE.
Reader Comments (10)
Personally I believe all our liberties have been and are still being slowly eroded, although the pace quickens.
All the nannying, the Health & Safety trying to protect everyone from everything! It is ridiculous - in life there is risk. For some a particular risk is worth taking, which for others it wouldn't be - it is down to choice!
Other risks we all take; walking downstairs, driving cars, going out and about amongst vehicles and other people, using a sharp knife to slice meat and vegetables. Just about everything we do in life is done at some risk to ourselves and/or others and without this element of risk we would not learn, we would not be individuals, in fact, we should not be allowed out of kindergarten, no matter how old we are!
People need to be allowed to judge risks for themselves and act accordingly as what is highly risky for one is a calculated risk worth taking for others, in order that their life be complete, satisfying and rewarding. If it goes wrong, it goes wrong, but that is a chance they took with their own welfare, having weighed up the elements of risk. It is called 'LIVING'!
To eliminate all risk, we all need to be dead!
As for Freedom of Speech - Hah! Anyone can choose to take offence at anything anyone else says! Unless it is inciting people to actually harm others, as some of these religions do, then speech is just one person's opinion. As a child I was always told "sticks and stones may break my bones, but names can never hurt me". There is a great element of truth in that and one that should be recognised so as not to cower people into silence when they have very valid points to make, even if those points are against the current government and its' practices! Lets face it, there is one hell of a lot that can be said about the apparent corruption of local and national government in this country which is becoming more and more apparent with the reduction in our liberty.
Cogent as always Lyn.
We were so impressed by the Human Rights Act of 1998 that we left the country. Every time I go back to the UK I feel more and more of a stranger. I also feel more and more paranoid as everywhere I turn I see a CCTV camera. or a pseudo policeman in a pretend uniform or worse still an armed actual policeman. Norway is supposed to be a very conformist society, but as far as personal freedoms are concerned it is light years ahead of the UK as is the rest of Scandinavia and most of Europe. What has happened to "live and let live", (as venerable a saying as the sticks and stones quoted by Lynn) that once upon a time seemed to be the central tenet of English civil society. So the British Library is hosting an exhibition, soon the only place you will find the word liberty will be in a museum, alongside the other dinosaurs. It seems to someone now looking from the outside that each day brings another restriction, regulation or ban in the UK. Do I see protest? Do I hear voices raised in complaint? Yes, here, in Holland, in Denmark, in Germany, but not in Britain. When are you going to stand up and fight back?It is no good blaming the EU, what you have is a home grown malaise and it can only have a home grown cure.
MCO
I disagree MCO when you say it is no good blaming the eu. In my opinion it is the eu that are the cause of the erosion of our civil liberties.
By flooding the british isles (in compliance with govts) with the influx of uncontrolled immigration of millions of foreigners and so called refugees/asylum seekers under the guise that they are needed for the economy, it erodes a country's identity and sovernity by diversification.
Thus, now that they have achieved their aims of saturisation, it has paved the way for all these rules and bans to be put into operation so they can divide and conquer by making it nigh impossible for indiginous natives voices to be heard or even make an impact.
There is now always some other group on the way up and on the make to undermine your objection and make your protest look like eletism.
When you start to see the dumbing down and the infiltration of the soaps, who have started to take part in trying to protect us against ourselves by their subtle attempts to demonise smokers as baddies, you begin to wonder what is real or what is unreal.
Oh yes, I think we can blame the united states of europe and their agenda.
On a brighter note I'm delighted to be able to report that the head of the human rights brigade in ireland has resigned (salary 145K) in a tantrum because his budget was cut by 43% and his agency amalgamated with the equality brigade with the loss of many jobs. Who else in these 'regrettable recessionery times' could afford to walk out of a job commanding a salary of that stature.
At least the recession is good for something!
Thank you MCO and I do agree with what you say.
Ann, I would say that the influx, controlled or otherwise, started 30 to 40 years ago in the UK and our liberties have been chipped away at ever since, it is just that the pace is picking up now, which may be partly due to the EU, but as our governments were already practising the erosion of liberties, whatever the EU brought in just allowed them to pick up the pace and blame someone else!
It is like our GB pound - the government won't step in to protect it - of course not, it is an easy way for them to force the Euro onto us in the not too distant future. I can see that happening in an underhand way too - we will just wake up one morning and find that we now need Euros to go shopping! Follow on from that, and one day, a little further in the future, we will wake up to find that we are all driving on the right as well!
With regard to the soaps, they are portraying what is actually happening. I do agree that it would be nice to see a little more resistance, but when even the news programmes shy away from 'rocking the boat' with regard to the smoking ban issues, then I guess it is a little easier to see why the soaps do too. Maybe in time they will stand up a little more and bring in more reality, however, they need to see real people, en masse, making a stand for them to justify putting into their story lines!
It's a little more devious than just portraying what is happening in the soaps. There was once a thing called 'product placement' in tv, and now we have 'political placement' which was formed by NuLabour, to work as closely as they can with tv productions to insert their doctrines for brainwashing. A few years ago this would be unbelievable, now nobody bats an eyelid, showing just how far we have fallen.
Since the smoking ban, the no-smoking signs have been in every possible scene in the soaps, especially over someones shoulder or between two heads while talking to each other, a tactic so blatent and as subtle as a punch in the mouth. No fear that any of these particular pubs will close.
I guess you're right Lyn with regard to the influx starting 30 ago in UK but it only started less than 10 years ago in ireland.
I should have made that distinction. But when ireland joined the eu 30 years ago none of us thought we would have had an influx slapped in our face in such a short period of time that we still have hardly caught our breath. The eu's tenticles are long and relentless and now seem to be coming to fruitition.
Everyone laughed here when they said they were bringing in a smoking ban as nobody thought it would ever happen. As up to that point the mantra for irish people was that rules were meant to be broken, but not any more as its been one ban after another ever since.
And yes our europhile govt are no better than your labour govt and have been in office for the same length of time too. Its expected they will be decimated at local elections next June but to what end I dont know as the opposition are no better. Still a change is as good as a rest I guess.
I thought product placement was supposed to be banned. I just couldnt believe it when I saw a no smoking sign in Maria's kitchen the other night while watching Corrie.
As long as its 'political placement' it must be all right then.
Hi Ann
I hadn't realised you meant Ireland. I was talking about the influx from our 'Empire' which have left many areas of the UK where native white Brits are a definite minority! Have to be careful, don't want to be done for racism! Of course, that only works the one way too!
Any bets on how they are going to spin their way out of this?
http://tinyurl.com/6p7brj
Male smoking rates UP! And in exactly the age group they were trying to deter.
I laughed so hard a little pee came out.
I was on the bus yesterday Colin and was sitting on the back row. On one the stops a group of 10 - 16 year olds came on ( must have been 7 of em ). And they were all showing each other their weed, cigs and some beer. I just thought these kids know more about boozing it up and drugs than I do!
Here is my comment on the Mail online.
"A spokesman for the Department of Health said: 'Smokefree laws were introduced to protect employees and the public from the harmful effects of secondhand smoke.
'The legislation was never intended to be a measure to reduce smoking prevalence.'
Trying to save face again. Julian Le Grand and John Reid both said before the smoking ban was voted on that it was not really about second hand smoke, it was to reduce the number of smokers to 21% by 2010. This information is also in a House of Lords Health and Safety at Work document. Le Grand and the House of Lords working party also said (as have many others) that second hand smoke could be a minor irritant (and create a smell that some people don't like) but there was no evidence that it could cause lung cancer or heart attacks in non smokers.
The second hand smoke obsession was however used as a base to introduce severe and unnecessary restrictions, using epidemiological estimates, not the results from proper scientific research.