Stephen Taylor (London, 5jt): Conor Gearty accuses the Convention on Modern Liberty of inflating concern about civil liberties into a moral panic. His attack is a useful opportunity to dispel some comforting illusions.

First consider his jibe a police state or a "surveillance society" or whatever the latest colourful label is. The conflation is his; no one at the Convention claimed the present ‘surveillance society' qualifies as a police state. But David Davis made the point very well: by the time a police state has emerged there are no easy paths back. Because our surveillance society has got us most of the way there, without serious debate, conventioneers think there is every reason to make a fuss.

Gearty offers three arguments not to: things are better than they were; we conventioneers select evidence that makes things look worse than they are; and we have got things out of proportion. These arguments converge on: Things Are Not That Bad. He accuses conventioneers of a covert reactionary agenda, "cloaking the advantages of the rich in the garb of personal autonomy".

Well, some things are better than they were. Gearty is right to point to legislative achievements such as the Freedom of Information Act and the Human Rights Act. Whatever their flaws, these are substantial advances. But they are not substitutes for ancient liberties such as habeas corpus and Coke's "the Englishman's home is his castle".