There has been much dissatisfaction with the accreditation process for the Liberal Democrat Conference in Birmingham this year.

It is well known that as a party we have defended civil liberties to a significant extent, being very anti the introduction of ID Cards and against the introduction of data storage to the extents proposed by the Labour Government.

Yet at our own conference, the requisite for entry was photgraphic ID to passport prescriptions, and in addition, passport or driving licence details.

Much has been blogged on this and the subsequent accreditation motion passed at Lib Dem Conference on Sunday, so I won’t reiterate the main arguments other than to say the requirements were excessive, discriminatory and against the fundemental values of the Liberal Democrats.

However, as Conference progresses, I am observing the ‘fear-factor’ being used to manipulate and impose a necessity of the extreme security proceedings.

Rather like Theresa May MP using the riots to justify further errosion of civil liberties, we are being illustrated a world in black-and-white where we must protect and lock down on freedoms of those who persecute us as Lib Dems.

There is an inclination towards as us-and-them approach I find extremely distasteful. The slow but sure introduction of heavy security, included fierce Tactical Fire Arms Police, airport scanners and photographic checks is based on a presumption of guilty until proved innocent that goes against fundemental Liberal Democrat values.
The justification has been ‘the price of government’.

But this week, in spite of our democratic processes deciding that the accreditation process is unfair and should be readdressed, we are seeing significant fear-mongering.

This is not a conspiracy theory, but more a fact check on spurious claims and rumours.

The conference hotel yesterday was locked down and people were unable to leave due to a security threat. Or, if you speak to staff, it was as a trial to see how easily it will be acheived. So there was no security threat.
The BBC reported that ‘terrorists, one of whom was a woman’ were arrested last night. The spurious links to the Lib Dem Conference are rife. But the fact is, it was completely unrelated to Lib Dems as Birmingham Police have confirmed. It’s just no one has reported that.

Today we see another lockdown of the ICC. But whether it was a serious threat or another practice is unknown.

Will we see the events used to create a further culture of obedient acceptance of errosion of the liberties we purport to want in society?