Gloomy thought after Trafalgar Square

Stephen Taylor (London, 5jt):  Here is a taste from Stephen's blog after he joined an OurKingdom cluster making sure that the liberty to protest was protected:  The prime minister’s first speech to Parliament was all about rolling back executive power and devolving it. There is nothing inevitable about freedom and democracy. The freedom of those who care sufficiently to demonstrate about an issue publicly will surely disappear unless periodically reasserted. If the last decade of New Labour government has anything to teach us about civil liberties, it is to think the unthinkable. The nodding through this summer of open official access to our phone records amounts to a revival of the notorious, bitterly resisted and supposedly long-dead general warrant. (Americans thought they had nailed this one two centuries ago, engraving a prohibition of writs of assistance into their constitution.) Email cannot be far behind.I was dismayed to find that at 1pm I could stroll easily into Trafalgar Square. Radio news tonight reported “hundreds” of protestors. Well, there were thousands, but not many thousands. How few seem to have grasped that what happens in Britain over the coming decades has more to do with our foreign policy – Iraq, energy sources, and letting millions die in our effluent – than any domestic agenda. Eventually the climate terrorists will get busy seeking our attention. The dribbling away of ancient freedoms parallels perfectly the melting of the ice caps. If only this were all metaphor.