Campaign for an English Parliament

This year, the Convention on Modern Liberty will gather in London and six venues across the UK, from Belfast to Cambridge, on 28 February.

It will bring together well over a thousand people, nearly fifty organisations, from the TUC to the Countryside Alliance, from the Football Supporters Federation to the British Institute of Human Rights, and more than a hundred distinguished independent speakers, with widely ranging political views and interests, among them Philip Pullman, Lord Bingham and Shami Chakrabarti, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, Tory Shadow Justice Secretary Dominic Grieve and Labour Minister for Skills David Lammy and Helena Kennedy (see full list).

The Convention is a call to all concerned with the threats to our fundamental rights and freedoms – from our own State, from terrorism and the responses to terrorism and from the gathering financial crisis.

From being imprisoned without charge, to bailiffs entering our homes without a warrant, to unlicensed surveillance and officials taking your information from anywhere and passing it anywhere they like – our liberties are being violated.

The Convention organisers will publish audits of these violations, show how they are connected, ask why they are taking place and how they might be reversed.

The Convention’s co-directors, Anthony Barnett and Henry Porter, said “We want three things.

First, we want the public to ask why these violations are happening and see that they are not isolated events.

Second, we want the violations to be stopped in a way that ensures they do not happen again.

Third, by asserting the right to manage our identities and to share between its agencies deep dossiers of information about us the government trespasses on the first claim of democracy: that the State is the servant of the people. We want to ensure that the tradition of public freedom in our country is renewed not suffocated, that our fundamental rights are secured, and that the agents of the state understand their powers exist to serve not control the citizens of Britain. This is all the more urgent as the financial crisis deepens.”

For videos by key supporting organisations, the full programme, press and blogosphere coverage see

http://www.modernliberty.net

The Convention is sponsored by The Rowntree Trusts, openDemocracy and Liberty. The Guardian is its media partner. NO2ID is a lead organisation partner.

ENDS

This may seem like an odd Convention for the CEP to be involved with but, by way of explaination, I will shortly be publishing my thoughts on why the Convention is important to both our cause and the CEP as an organisation.

On an individual level I hope that you will all get involved, engage in the debate and spread the word.

Do check out the Guardian’s excellent Liberty Central. And if you are a blogger then then check out Sunny and James at Liberal Conspiracy.

Stand by for updates.