Henry Porter had, as usual, an interesting column in today's Observer. One of the few UK journalists who gives civil liberty issues their full importance, he takes the Labour government to task for their further erosion of civil liberties - in this case, people's rights to safety and privacy in their own homes.

What few understand is that, under Blair's continued campaign against the people's rights, forced entry is going to become a lot more common in Britain, although not perhaps with the overwhelming force of Forest Gate. Running in parallel with legislation that invades our privacy - the ID cards' national identity register and the total surveillance by number-recognition cameras in cities and on motorways - is an attack on that great principle of English law, the 'inviolability of the dwelling house'.

Porter goes on to explain the history of English (and British) legal culture relating to the inviolability of a person's home. Whilst sensible exceptions must exist, our homes have, for centuries, been our castles. Now, more than ever before, that is ceasing to be.

He ends with a somewhat confusing appeal to the Conservative Party to conserve this liberal legacy:

No longer is a citizen's home his guaranteed personal space; no longer is it fundamental to his individual right of privacy. And this huge change in our national life has occurred without a murmur of complaint from the opposition. Now that Blair is wearing his attack on our liberty as a badge of honour - actually, what else could he do? - you might expect the Conservative party, with its traditional interest in property and the rights of the individual, to be jumping up and down about these new laws. But sadly, at the very moment we need those values shouted from every platform in the country, the Tories have consigned themselves to rehab to prove that they are not really Tory.

If one is looking for opposition to the government's civil liberty policies, then looking to the Tories is looking in the wrong place. The Tories have long managed to carry the votes of a significant portion of liberal Britain who, whilst not being particularly conservative, would vote conservative in order to protect our liberal heritage. That the Tories no longer make much of defending this heritage, and are exceedingly unlikely to reverse the trend set by Blair, they no longer have the credentials of a party of liberty.

It's all very well David Cameron wearing niceties and looking like a calendar boy, but we need a great statement of conviction, an affirmation of liberty and British democratic values. There's no sign of that coming because he fears - with some reason - that Blair will use such a speech to portray him as weak on crime and punishment.

I think he hits the nail on the head here. There are things more important than party politics, things more important than tabloid headlines and more important than getting elected at any cost. In Parliament, it was the Liberal Democrats who were fighting ID cards when the Tories were still supporting them, despite the scare stories Labour were using to justify their policy.

Some six months ago now, David Cameron promised a 'liberal Conservative Party' and invited Lib Dems to join him. I think that now is the time for all to realise that this has not come to pass; in fact, the invitation should go the other way, for liberal-minded Conservatives to find a home in a party that places the protection and promotion of liberty above the protection of opinion poll ratings or the promotion of 'tough' talk.