Briefly Noted: Help, I'm Being Repressed
The URL alone is striking: yourfreedom.hmg.gov.uk. The site is the brainchild of British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who says civil liberties will be a priority in the new coalition government.
The website launched in July with an invitation to British citizens to nominate laws and government programs for termination. It has three front-page categories: "Restoring civil liberties," "Repealing unnecessary laws," and "Cutting business and third sector regulations." Users are speaking up for causes ranging from ending drug prohibition to permitting overnight stays in national parks.
The site's mission: "We want to restore Britain's traditions of freedom and fairness, and free our society of unnecessary laws and regulations—both for individuals and businesses." That statement seems to acknowledge that the state has already taken too much freedom away, a rare thing for a government to concede. The British public apparently agrees. Overwhelmed with traffic, the site crashed within hours of going live.—Radley Balko
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
which
law
is good
Thanks
everyone has right to chase for freedom and well-being.but not everyone has ability to own