The seventh Carnival on Modern Liberty

"How hard can it be?" I asked myself when I volunteered to host this carnival. A few links, an elegant paragraph about each and the job is done.

As it turns out, I have been given the week after the Convention on Modern Liberty. That means there will be dozens of links but few elegant paragraphs. So apologies to all the bloggers who get only the briefest of mentions.

Before the Convention

Pieces looking forward to the big day came from Rory Bremner and Entering the Networked World.

Jack Straw told us not to worry our pretty little heads and Homo Veritas said it was all the work of giant shape-shifting lizards. Or something.

At the Convention

If you have time to read only one post on the London Convention on Modern Liberty then I recommend the diary of the day from Alix Mortimer. You'll believe you were there.

The Guardian posted a raft of accounts of individual sessions. They came from Philip Pullman, Nesrine Malik, Aidan Geary, A.C. Grayling and Paul Kingsnorth.

Other session reports came from Douglas Carswell, Disruptive Proactivity (who also posted the slides from his talk), Pat the Chooks and Tom Griffin.

Blog posts on the day as a whole were written by Entangled Alliances, Tony's Blog (part 1 and part 2), Richard's Kingdom, Cafe Babel London and Tony Curzon Price.

They also came from The Last Ditch, datonomy and The Adam Smith Institute.

Outside London

The Convention on Modern Liberty didn't just take place in London, you know. Yes, I mean you. You in Islington with the caviar sandwich and the achingly trendy T-shirt.

Magna Carta Plus News (part 1 and part 2) attended the Convention in Glasgow. So did Pat the Chooks.

Reports from the Manchester event were filed by Clair Lewis at Heresy Corner, penwing.site and (for the Guardian) Ally Fogg.

After the Convention

Pieces more or less inspired by the Convention - and universally supportive of its aims - appeared in numerous publications or on their websites.

There was the Daily Mail, the Sunday Telegraph, the Guardian, The Times, The New Humanist, The Times again, the Independent and the Spectator.

And there was a good piece on the BBC website too.

What happens next?

James Graham gave some suggestions on his Quaequam Blog!

Also looking forward were Sweet and Tender Hooligan, Pat the Chooks, just laugh out loud and A National Conversation for England.

Charlotte Gore questioned the "modern" in modern liberty. Spiked was interesting - and contrarian as ever.

Writing for the Guardian, Alix Mortimer said:

I don't want to live in a society that needs an annual Convention of Modern Liberty. I want to live in a society that treasures its liberties, not just in law but in the active vigilance of the people. And in turning up on Saturday I accepted a responsibility to be one of those that acted. If I have to turn up again in February 2010, it'll be because I failed. We all failed.

Ah, but the price of liberty is eternal vigilance - as Jefferson probably never said.

Other stories

There is more to liberty than the Convention - even on the day, Rachel in North London was speaking at an unnamed event down the road.

Jailhouse Lawyer and Dizzy Thinks wrote about prisoners' voting rights and this year's Euro elections.

In the Guardian Robert McCrum asked where the contemporary novels about liberty are. Cheryl's Mewsings suggested one answer.

Richard's Kingdom declared that CCTV is out of control in the UK and must be stopped. Notes from the Ubiquitous Surveillance Society asked how many people are being arrested for taking photographs in public.

From America, Divided we Stand, United we Fall looks at the short-lived phenomenon of the Libertarian Democrat. And Learned Genius thinks you should quit your political party and become an independent.

Down the Tubes writes on the Comic Book Alliance's concerns over the effect of new legislation on their favourite reading. The Social Science Research Network has the abstract of a paper on "Identity Cards and Identity Romanticism".

Dizzy Thinks asks why the encryption at Westminster is so poor. And James Graham has picked a fight with former Special Forces commando Paddy Ashdown.

You have to admire his courage.

Goodbye

Please let me know of any broken links or if I have left your nomination out.

Next week's Carnival will be at Amused Cynicism. Please make your nominations via the Carnival's home page.