Taking Liberties

Without wanting to sound facile, this is pretty much an establishment-endorsed documentary, with lots of irked-off middle-class interviewees and little substance. Yes civil liberties have been dramatically eroded post-9/11, and yes we are living in very oppressed times... but why focus on the impact on comfortably-off professional do-gooders? Let's look at the bigger picture, instead of focusing on a narrow sub-set of society. Also... the list of organisations given at the end of the feature really rubbed salt in the wound - Amnesty International...no thanks. The director of Amnesty International USA is Suzzane Nossel - a former Clinton aide who backed the war in Iraq and has endorsed future military action on other hostile states (i. e. Iran). Why have Amnesty embedded such a figure so high-up in their infrastructure? either way, Amnesty is not an organisation I would be looking towards for support and solutions for these difficult times.

Five stars yes. Loved it no. How can you love a film which makes you angry, appalled and downright bloody terrified? A Labour voter ever since 16, I was slightly cynical about how this documentary was going to portray Blair's Labour government - not that i would ever vote Labour again anyway, I hasten to add. Within 10 minutes of starting to watch this film, I was utterly convinced that I had made the right choice by never voting for them again.

If this film has a fatal flaw, it is in its total anti-Labour stance. Let us never forget that it is successive governments of all political colours that have gradually eroded what we continue to think of as our rights.

I also think that the film gets slightly sidetracked at the end by the Guantanamo Bay issue. I do not deny that it is an important subject, but certainly I began to feel a slight detachment from this point, when I had previously been made angry by the sight of policemen forcibly arresting grandmothers, students and men of the cloth exercising what until then I had assumed were their civil liberties. I also think that the writers shot themselves in the foot slightly by including a section on the 'NatWest3' - one of whom ironically makes the case that 'public sympathy is not going to be with an Investment Banker who has made a pot of money, whether his right to be tried in the UK has been taken away or not'. if you are going to make a documentary you don't weaken your argument by incorporating people who are likely to divide your target audience's opinion.

A fascinating, though very alarming account of the Blair legacy. Made me very angry to be reminded of all the attacks on democracy and civil liberties this administration inflicted upon us. Shame on you Blair and Bush; I don't know how you sleep at night. To add insult to injury, they spout of their commitment to democracy and the need to protect us when it's them that we needed protection from more than any other.

I have seen this movie before.

About 2-3 years ago.

It still makes perfect sense.

We are controlled by a small minority... and they are still getting away with it till this day.

I hope this movie provides all 'HUMAN' minds with the ability to see, that protest is still an option.

Cool outré by Jarvis.

A well thought out, excellent summary of New Labour's less publicised policy manoeuvres whilst in power.

The post-WWII 'good' (habeas corpus, torture ban etc) basically ripped up piecemeal.

Very good footage throughout. Do we have a left-wing or even centre left party in the UK these days? Certainly not. Blunkett, Blair, Brown...cosying up to US imperialism. This is a tragedy of the highest order.