I share the concerns about David Miranda's detention
Found on The Guardian on Monday, 26 August 2013
The events of last week involving the Guardian and its reporters have renewed debate and inflamed concern about the age-old dilemma of how to strike the balance between individual liberty and collective security.
I believed at the time, and still do, that it was entirely reasonable for the government to seek to get leaked documents back from the Guardian or have them destroyed. Along with the information the newspaper had published, it had information that put national security and lives at risk. It was right for us to want that information destroyed.
That had nothing to do with security at all: it was nothing but a demonstration of power. Even a politician should by now know what it means when backup copies are spread all over the world. The destruction of the harddrives never helped to restore what Clegg calls security. The problem behind all this is that the governments are stomping on the rights the people have given them; and the people can take them away again.