Modern Liberty sounds a wake-up call

A sell-out conference on civil liberties is being held in central London and at parallel venues throughout the UK this Saturday.

The organisers of the Convention on Modern Liberty said the events were for everyone "concerned with attacks on our fundamental rights and freedoms under pressure from counter-terrorism, financial meltdown and the database state".

More than two years ago Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner, warned that he had long been concerned that the UK was "sleepwalking into a surveillance society”. He said we were now "waking up to find this society is already all around us".

The hope is the events will act as a 'wake-up call' to the public and galvanise opinion, analysis and action from ordinary people.

Over a hundred speakers have been confirmed, ranging from musicians, civil rights organisers and academics to judges, journalists and politicians. Keynote speakers including Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, and David Davis MP.

Two plenary sessions during the day at the main London event are followed by workshops discussing topics ranging from xenophobia, the police to democracy.

The first plenary will look at the role of the state. With over 3,000 new crimes created over the last decade, the introduction of ID cards and proposals for new databases to record individuals’ information, this session proposes that "the last decade has seen an unprecedented attack on Britain’s fundamental rights and freedoms".

The second plenary in the afternoon will discuss how civil rights and freedoms can be maintained in today’s society. It asks how technology can be used to liberate and emancipate when we currently "face a toxic combination of fear, anxiety, anger and helplessness… a classic background for even greater authoritarian measures and police repression".

Although the London event has no tickets left, parallel Conventions are taking place across the UK in Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Manchester and Glasgow. Some spaces are still available at these venues.

They will take the plenary debates and keynote speeches live from London via webcasts and host their own discussions. The whole London event can also be viewed live via a webcast on the Modern Liberty website.