Today a bunch of people in the UK have been busy talking about the erosion of civil liberties in our country. The event was called the Convention on Modern Liberty and it took place in London, Glasgow, Belfast, Bristol, Manchester, Cardiff, Cambridge and on Twitter. Speakers included Philip Pullman, Brian Eno, Feargal Sharkey, Billy Bragg and Cory Doctorow. You can find Pullman’s keynote speech online here. And a Guardian report on the event here. Cory has been busily tweeting away, as have many other people. If you search Twitter for #coml you should find lots of coverage.

I don’t really need to add anything except give you a brief extract from Pullman’s speech:

The society these laws seem to be designed to bring about is one of institutionalised paranoia of furtive hatred and low-level panic, every scrap of delight and gladness we can find is a blow against that fear; every instance of civility and kindness we come across is a clean wind dispersing a foul vapour.

And suggest that you read the whole thing.