"plans were also announced to protect freedom of information and "legitimate journalism". Specifically this would be done by having Paul Dacre, editor of the Daily Mail, examine the rules under which many government documents are locked away for decades before being released to the public."

That's a joke right ? Please tell me that's a joke. It's certainly the first time I've seen the words "legitimate journalism" and "Daily Mail" in the same sentence.

You're not seriously telling me that instead of convening a committee of bipartisan pols and other interedsted parties, The Fat Controller is going to cede judgement on an issue of national importance to the Daily bastard Mail ?????????

I can't find any words, I really can't.

"new issues of terrorism and security, "

Again, that's a joke right ? I mean it's nearly November yeah ? Guy Fawkes ? Anyone ??

.... promise everything to everyone, ignore the contradictions, and just hope the voters have forgotten by the time it comes round to an election.

"Rather counterbalancing this, Mr Brown suggested he personally would favour an extension of police powers to hold suspects for long periods without trial. He also favoured the controversial National ID card system."

Hold a man for a day and it won't affect his employment, hold him for a week and you are really stretching it and better be sure he's your man. Hold him for a month and he'll be fired from his job for sure, fail to pay many bills, be put under extreme financial strain and stress, affect his credit record.

Lock him up for 3 months and his house will be repossessed when he gets home.

Yet you don't even have enough evidence to file a charge again him?

How long exactly does it take to obtain phone records, interview them and get a few DNA samples back. I think its less than a week, yet already it's taken to 1 month, now they want 3????

I think it will just lead to job stretching we see in Government already. Taking a leisurely time to do anything as a means of denying someone their rights. Oh can we hold him for an extra month, we need the DNA samples back and I've sent them off by second class parcel post because a bike courier was too expensive. But hey, he's got a turban, you know, like a terrorist wears nudge nudge wink wink.

Also why did National ID have to be a complicated expensive biometric privacy invading boondongle project? Why couldn't it simply have been an ID card like anything else. Blaming Europe for it, doesn't help, since UK was the driver in Europe for this. Why did we have to out-creepy Burma?

As Matt Bryant points out, pretty much SOP - all Broon has to do now is pick and choose the elements he actually wants to implement. It is somewhat new to include the whole self-inconsistent mess in a single speech, though.

And someone really should drop a hint to our current leader that this government has already written a "new chapter in our country's story of liberty" - it has mutilated and crippled it in whole new ways, to a degree never before achieved.

Mind you, at least with Brown spin, the colour gives a clue as to the value of the content.

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"I want to explore how together we can write a new chapter in our country's story of liberty,"

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And to do this we'll redefine liberty. The new definition of liberty will be that the few will be free to live in perfect safety, free from terror, free from crime and above all free from the horror of having to make their own decisions about what is good for them.

The vast majority will be the RFID chipped sub-human drones who live their lives out under constant surveillance thus ensuring security and freedom for the good and the great.

Neo-Labour, we'll brainwash the affluent/stupid and enslave the rest. For those who refuse to conform, who refuse "The Greater Good", our overlords... I mean friends in the US have reserved a special place for you at their Guantanamo Bay Re-Education Center.

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How can we be so retarded?

Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime? No - soft on crime and blame <insert current "Won't someone please think of the children" outrage here> and totally ignore the actual causes of crime (as they're too difficult).

We're so concerned about the human rights of convicted criminals and yet continue pushing laws that greatly impinge on those same human rights if they belong to someone who has never been convicted (or even suspected) of a crime. Look a bit swarthy, carrying a backpack, running for the tube? 3 months locked up for DOING NOTHING WRONG (while they make sure you were doing nothing wrong).

Typical from comrade Gordonievsky.

We're going to give back your liberty and to make absolutely sure, we're going to tell you exactly what liberty is. In fact we may even write it down for you.

The clunking fist and the control-freak brain are still operating in tandem I see. We could end up being the first country to implement a written Constitution that has both small print and an exclusion clause.

"Not to mention that wooing the Mail has been a staple New Labour policy since before they came to power"

..but the Sun too.

"I want to explore how together we can write a new chapter in our country's story of liberty," - Gordon Brown

"Your immediate resignation and suicide?" - Captain Blackadder