Where have you been, Tim Garton Ash?

Anthony Barnett (London, OK): Over in the Guardian Tim Garton Ash has written an essay arguing that we need to defend our freedoms and liberties from the government's attempts to extend internment, provide phone-logs without warrants or safeguards, expand surveillance and all the things OurKingdom, among others, has been covering. Hello! I like and admire Tim and (except on Iran where is is playing the White House game) he writes well and sympathetically about the wider world which is very refreshing. But for him, now, to end an article with a cry to battle "Let the fightback begin" as if it hasn't, he is the wise man amongst us, and we have been nervously holding back, is a bit rich. For two years Henry Porter has been leading the argument in eloquent column after column in the Observer. No2ID has campaigned for even longer. Liberty has stood up for our basic rights. Taking Liberties has made a film about it. The Independent has campaigned on it. Welcome aboard, Tim. But a little bit of modesty from a latecomer saying that he has changed his mind and now agrees with the rest of us would make it a touch more convincing.