http://www.truth-out.org/while-britain-loosens-big-brothers-grip-us-keeps-civil-liberties-curtailed67645About a decade before the American Revolution, England's Great Commoner, William Pitt the Elder, laid down one of the more eloquent boundary lines between the individual and the state. "The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all forces of the Crown," he said. "It may be frail; its roof may shake; the wind may blow through it; the storms may enter, the rain may enter - but the King of England cannot enter; all his forces dare not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement!"
Pitt's rhetoric is one of the more enduring expressions of the Anglo-American tradition of civil liberties - the idea that people should be allowed to go about their lives unmolested unless they pose a threat to the freedom and safety of others. At their purest, these freedoms are protected regardless of race, religion, sex or class. Yet since 19 jihadists turned four airliners into suicide missiles, both the United States and the United Kingdom curtailed foundational liberties and undermined the rule of law in favor of aggressive security policies whose proponents claim prevent further attacks.
The eventual pushback against these policies on both sides of the pond inevitably occurred, coalescing around traditional party politics over the last two years. In 2008, then-senator Barack Obama won the White House, promising a return to American values and causing even some libertarians to cheer <1> that basic liberties would be restored. On the campaign trail, <2> Obama promised to revisit the Patriot Act, eliminate warrantless wiretaps and shut down the prison facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
A similar desire for change crossed the Atlantic last year. Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron took residence at 10 Downing Street and formed a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats, pledging to restore the country's commitment to individual rights and the rule of law. Both the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats were blunt in their criticism - far more so than American politicians - that their country had degenerated into a "surveillance state" under the rule of New Labour's Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. In their respective 2010 campaign manifestos, each party pledged to beat back Big Brother, with the Liberal Democrats promising to "protect and restore your freedoms." <3>
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