Gordon Brown on Liberty
From Democracywiki
Central Lobby
On 25th October the Prime Minister gave a speech at Westminster University about liberty and what it means for Britain.
The Prime Minister made a number of specific policy commitments including:
- a review of the 30 year rule
- that Parliament should have a 'clear role' in the appointment of members to the Intelligence and Security Committee
- a review of the 250 provisions that allow the state to enter an individuals home without permission
- the start of a process to create a new British Bill of Rights and responsibilities
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On the idea of a specifically British tradition of Liberty he said that
- "A passion for liberty has determined the decisive political debates of our history, inspired many of our defining political moments, and those debates, conducted in the crucible of great events, have, in my view, forged over time a distinctly British interpretation of liberty ------ one that asserts the importance of freedom from prejudice, of rights to privacy, and of limits to the scope of arbitrary state power, but one that also rejects the selfishness of extreme libertarianism and demands that the realm of individual freedom encompasses not just some but all of us"
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On the right to protest he said
- "Wherever and whenever there are question marks over the ability to express dissent I believe that the balance should be with those taking action to defend and extend the liberty of individuals and their freedoms to express their views within the law."
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On the need for Freedom of Information he said
- " Because liberty cannot flourish in the darkness, our rights and freedoms are protected by the daylight of public scrutiny as much as by the decisions of Parliament or independent judges. So it is clear that to protect individual liberty we should have the freest possible flow of information between government and the people."
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On the use of biometrics he said
- "the issue for the future is not whether biometrics are used - they are now already being used by companies, by retailers, on new laptop computers in place of passwords to protect personal security and privacy: the question is how they will be used and under what protections for the rights of the individual."
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On the need for constitutional reform he said
- "I believe that trust in our institutions can only be strengthened if our constitutional reforms are explicitly founded on British ideas of liberty -- and that it is imperative that in every generation we re-examine areas where the executive has discretion and where to limit that discretion would be in the interests of good government."
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On the British Bill of Rights and Responsibilities he said
- "Today, Jack Straw is signalling the start of a national consultation on the case for a new British Bill of Rights and Duties - or, as I said in July, for moving towards a written constitution.
- This will include a discussion of how we can entrench and enhance our liberties - building upon existing rights and freedoms but not diluting them - but also make more explicit the responsibilities that implicitly accompany rights. We will also examine the rights and responsibilities that flow from British citizenship, informed by the work being carried out by Peter Goldsmith on citizenship.
- The debate about a Bill of Rights and Duties will be of fundamental importance to our liberties and to our constitutional settlement and opens a new chapter in the British story of liberty. So it is right that the discussion should engage those of all parties and none who believe in our democracy and the importance of liberty within it in a constructive dialogue. And this debate is not just for one party or one year but for all parties and for this generation. I hope other political parties will join this dialogue."
