Nick Clegg speech to Institute For Government on civil liberties

Nick Clegg speech to Institute For Government on civil liberties; ENGLAND: London: Institute For Government: EXT Nick Clegg MP (Deputy Prime Minister) out of car and into building - greeted on steps by Lord Adonis INT Lord Adonis speech introducing Nick Clegg SOT Nick Clegg speech SOT - This morning I want to talk about freedom. About the hard-won liberties that we in Britain hold so dear.This nation is built on a faith in fair play. On a historic hostility towards those who seek to impose their will on others. Innocent until proven guilty. Equal before the law. Each individual able to think and speak without fear of persecution. These are the standards instilled in us. They are the hallmarks of a civilised society. They are the reason that victims of oppression worldwide still look to us as proof that there is a better way. - Yet recent times have seen those traditions badly damaged. Under Labour our civil liberties have been undermined, eroded, lost. It isn't just the politics that makes me care about this so much; although my party has long campaigned on these issues. It's something I was brought up with too. My family, like so many others, was marked by the extremes and conflicts of the last century. My mother spent part of her childhood in a prisoner of war camp. My father's mother fled the Russian Revolution and found refuge here. That family history made sure that my brothers and sister and I grew up certain of one thing: you must never take your freedom for granted. And you must treasure and love this country for precisely that reason. - So the Coalition Government is going to turn a page on the Labour years: resurrecting the liberties that have been lost; embarking on a mission to restore our great British freedoms. We aren't wasting any time, and we are ambitious about what we want to achieve. In the next twelve months we want to undo the damage of thirteen years. 2011 will be the year we give people's freedom back. We'll do it in ...