The funny thing about America is that we actually got all of our civil liberties from English tradition. America and the UK share the tradition of the English common law, and a lot of the reforms the UK has seen (including the erosion of double jeopardy) would be unthinkable in America.
That said, there seem to be promising signs that the new Con/LibDem coalition is putting things in the right direction. It's encouraging that you folks threw out the Labour party, and it's more encouraging that you seemed to do it for many of the right reasons. (I feel comfortable saying things like that because I have a feeling many British people feel the same way about us and the Republicans.) Of course, it remains to be seen whether the new boss is really any better than the old boss.
I don't really mean to denigrate the UK. The UK's done things in recent years that are very worrying. They're probably par for the course for European countries, but given the traditions of civil liberties we share, a lot of us have higher expectations for the UK.
That said, there seem to be promising signs that the new Con/LibDem coalition is putting things in the right direction. It's encouraging that you folks threw out the Labour party, and it's more encouraging that you seemed to do it for many of the right reasons. (I feel comfortable saying things like that because I have a feeling many British people feel the same way about us and the Republicans.) Of course, it remains to be seen whether the new boss is really any better than the old boss.
I don't really mean to denigrate the UK. The UK's done things in recent years that are very worrying. They're probably par for the course for European countries, but given the traditions of civil liberties we share, a lot of us have higher expectations for the UK.