To protect the nation from terror the Blair government passed a series of laws that also undermined our basic liberties. ibid.
Mia and Milan held a memorial service outside Downing Street. They were reading out the names of Iraqi civilians and British soldiers who had died since the invasion of Iraq. Luckily, fourteen policemen were on hand. ibid.
In June 2001 Brian Haw started his peaceful protest against sanctions placed on Iraq. Over the next four years the government repeatedly arrested Brian and took him to court. But Brian won every time. So the Home Secretary David Blunkett changed the law ... 78 police paid Brian a visit. ibid.
If God forbid any terrorist act happens in the country, believe you me people are not going to be asking whether this legislation is too draconian. Whether it’s too great an incursion into people’s civil liberties. No-one’s going to be saying that to me. They’re going to be saying, ‘Are you sure it’s tough enough?’ Tony Blair, 11th March 2005
The fundamental dilemma is this: how do we reconcile liberty with security in this new world ... Let liberty at last stand up for the law-abiding citizen in this country. Tony Blair
It’s almost hard to imagine anything more undemocratic than the view that political officials should not debate American wars in public, but only express concerns ‘privately with the administration’. Glenn Greenwald
If the events of September 11 2001 have proven anything it’s that the terrorists can attack us, but they can’t take away what makes us American – our freedom, our liberty, our civil rights. No. Only Attorney General John Ashcroft can do that. John Stewart
It was civil disobedience that won them their civil rights. Tariq Ali, ‘The Obama Syndrome: Surrender at Home, War Abroad’
It is easy to be disgruntled if you are denied rights and freedoms to which you feel entitled. But if you are not coherent, if you cannot put into words what it is that displeases you and why it is unfair and should change, then you are dismissed as an unreasonable whiner. You may be lectured about perseverance and patience, life as a test, the need to accept the higher wisdom of others. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Nomad: From Islam to America
Free speech is the bedrock of liberty and a free society. And yes, it includes the right to blaspheme and offend. ibid.
Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding. Louis D Brandeis: Olmstead v US 438 1928 dissenting
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was the most sweeping civil rights legislation of its day, and included women’s rights as part of its reforms. Ironically, the section on women’s rights was added by a senator from Virginia who opposed the whole thing and was said to be sure that if he stuck something about women’s rights into it, it would never pass. The Bill passed anyway though, much to the chagrin of a certain wiener from Virginia. Adam Selzer, The Smart Aleck’s Guide to American History
Our system was not set up to for the government to be able to do with a man’s kingdom what they want. It was set up to protect that man’s kingdom, to allow him to feel that his borders, no matter how great or small, would always be secure and that he would always be allowed to defend them. The Supreme Court took that right away with their eminent domain ruling back in 2005. The governments have taken advantage of that eminent domain ruling, and you, the media, have failed at protecting citizens. Tit Elingtin, Eminent Domain
These examples and many others demonstrate an alarming trend whereby the privacy and dignity of our citizens is being whittled away by sometimes imperceptible steps. Taken individually, each step may be of little consequence. But when viewed as a whole, there begins to emerge a society quite unlike any we have seen – a society in which government may intrude into the secret regions of man’s life at will. William O Douglas: Osborn v United States 166 dissenting
The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion. Edmund Burke
The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts. Edmund Burke
The civil rights movement didn’t begin in Montgomery and it didn’t end in the 1960s. It continues on to this very minute. Julian Bond
The [Supreme] Court during the past decade let police obtain search warrants on the strength of anonymous tips. It did away with the need for warrants when police want to search luggage, trash cans, car interiors, bus passengers, fenced private property and barns. Dan Baum
Thought that is silenced is always rebellious. Majorities of course are often mistaken. This is why the silencing of minorities is necessarily dangerous. Criticism and dissent are the indispensable antidote to major delusions. Alan Barth
George W Bush and his administration embarked on a full-scale assault on civil liberties, human rights and the rule of law, walking away from his international obligations, tearing up international treaties, protocols and UN conventions. Bianca Jagger
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. Benjamin Franklin, 1759
Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech. Benjamin Franklin
To have granted liberties, and not to have liberties in truth and realities, is but to mock the kingdom. John Pym, 1584-1643, English parliamentary leader
For this is not the liberty which we can hope, that no grievance ever should arise in the Commonwealth, that let no man in this world expect; but when complaints are freely heard, deeply considered, and speedily reformed, then is the utmost bound of civil liberty attained that wise men look for. John Milton, Areopagitica 1644
Give me the liberty to know to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties. ibid.
None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but licence. John Milton, The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates
No man who knows aught, can be so stupid to deny that all men naturally were born free. ibid.
For liberty there is a cost – it’s broken skulls and leather cosh,
From the boys in uniform – now you know whose side they're on –
With backing – with blessing,
From earthly gods not heaven,
A stone’s throw away from it all.
Whatever pleasures those who get – from stripping skin with rhino whip,
Are the kind that must be stopped – before their kind take all we’ve got –
With loving – with caring,
They take great pride in working,
The stone’s throw away from it all.
Whenever honesty persists – you’ll hear the snap of broken ribs,
Of anyone who’ll take no more – of the lying bastards roar –
In Chile – In Poland, Johannesburg - South Yorkshire,
A stone’s throw away: Now we’re there. The Style Council, A Stone’s Throw
You have to stand up for what’s right in life. Unless you do that, you are nothing. Freedom and liberty is what people really want. And it’s time to stop the duplicity of government lying to us. Aaron Russo, interview Alex Jones
They’ll tell you to doomsday they’re defending your liberties. They’re lying! Aaron Russo, Mad as Hell
No constable or other royal official shall take corn or other movable goods from any man without immediate payment, unless the seller voluntarily offers postponement of this. Magna Carta Clause 28
No sheriff, royal official, or other person shall take horses or carts for transport from any free man, without his consent. Clause 30
In future no official shall place a man on trial upon his own unsupported statement, producing credible witnesses to the truth of it. Clause 38
No freeman shall be taken, or imprisoned, or outlawed, or exiled, or in any way harmed, nor will we go upon him nor will we send upon him, except by the legal judgement of his peers or by the law of the land. Clause 39
To none will we sell, to none deny or delay, right or justice. Clause 40
Liberties depend on the silence of the law. Thomas Hobbes, 1588-1679, Leviathan
It is a fair summary of history to say that the safeguards of liberty have been forged in controversies involving not very nice people. Felix Frankfurter, 1882-1965, American judge
Liberty is, to the lowest rank of every nation, little more than the choice of working or starving. Samuel Johnson, The Bravery of the English Common Soldier