Open Secrets

In the finest liberal tradition of open debate, the director of Liberty has been blocked from addressing the Deputy Conservative conference over the coalition's secret courts bill. At the moment, the party is debating whether Nick Clegg should cave in to the Conservatives immediately or, as with the anti-NHS bill, cave in to the Conservatives later. Given that one of the bill's purposes is explicitly to prevent political embarrassment, the Deputy Conservative leadership's enthusiasm for it is quite understandable; but some of the plebs are making noises of disapproval, so the last thing the Deputy Conservatives need at this point is a civil liberties campaigner openly discussing civil liberties with a party which once claimed some sort of interest in preserving them. The party has allowed outside experts to contribute before, but evidently this time the price in cognitive dissonance was too high to pay.