Art,
I'll preface this with the acknowledgment that you may might entirely correct - I might be unaware of what I haven't got because I haven't had it.
What liberty is it to which you refer? I appreciate the argument about firearms and personal defense and all that being a right and a litmus test, and I agree with a good deal of it, except to say that I'm sure you are aware that the state of self defense in this country is often inaccurately portrayed. Also, tyrants may be 'gun control' -ers, but 'gun control' -ers are not necessarily tyrants, or would be tyrants. They're just paving a different road to hell that isn't necessarily a hell of dictatorial, populace slaughtering persuasions.
It is hard to place all that aside, and I'm not suggesting that we should, except to say that the personal liberties of the British citizen don't seem to be vastly different from the personal liberties of the American citizen. I have the right to a trial by jury, to know the charges (with similar restrictions), to protest (with similar restrictions), to print and read charged material of several different natures (with similar restrictions). My internet use is not restricted, my telephone is no more likely to be tapped, I am not subject to curfew or travel restriction. I'm not being obtuse here, I'm just suggesting that reading some you'd think that Britain is a gulag.
So, I'm not sure what these horrors are. You are right that there is less interest in personal sovereignty, or more accurately I perceive that there is less interest in Brits of my acquaintance than there is amongst Americans of my acquaintance. However, the latter group consists of APS and THR, so it's probably not a valid sample.
I'm prepared to be schooled by the wiser man.
I'm probably not a wiser man, but I'll throw in a few points on the issue.
Starting with the caveat that, other than gun/self defense rights, I'd put Britain on the short list (probably counted on one hand) of the 'freest' of the civilized countries...
A large part of the issue I think is that Americans see decline of British civil liberties looming more largely simply because we probably have more back and forth press between the U.S. and Britain than perhaps any other nation. I'm sure the obverse is true as well. Decline of American civil liberties (references to patriot act, secrecy of the Bush administration, abortion laws etc), feature prominently in American-British discussions too.
Another point I'd make is that British common law rights are perceived in the American law community as bellweather to American rights.
Your examples are perfect actually. Trial by jury has been restricted or proposed to be eliminated in Britain recently (I disremember which). The "right to remain silent" abolished. The right to a grand jury abolished.
Free speech has never meant the same thing in Britain as in the U.S, with prior restraint on what papers may print (official secrets act, subjudice, and much easier libel claims with no appeal to a "first amendment) and has even gotten to the point where (even if they are ridiculous made up stories by the British press) the perception is there that people voicing politically incorrect opinions may face legal action (The Evening Standard claimed this week that a Polish birth goalie in a Scot football league {the Celtics was it?} is facing prosecution for crossing himself after saving a goal, and yes I might have the particulars wrong on that).
I've had my own internet use substantially restricted on a now defunct message board "This is London" because of British publishing ('libel' and 'subjudice') laws, and the NYT is talking about restricting access to British citizens because they don't want to comply with British standards on those issues.
That's not to say there aren't many priviledges Britons enjoy that Americans don't. As far as "rights", the only I can think of is not to be subject to capital punishment.
Edit - I recalled several more rights Britons enjoy that Americans don't on my drive home from work. A codification of the maximum penalty for murder being xyz numbers of years imprisonment before being eligible for parole. Trespass rights that far exceed that in the United States. Those familiar with the European Constitutition can probably name more. I thought of another English common law (now American) right that has been substantially eroded recently (less so, but still having been eroded, in America), the prohibition on "double jeopardy" in criminal trials.
In all fairness I have to point out that 99.9% or greater of arguments on the general issue involve not fair comparisons between legal systems, but simple one-upsmanship in the manner of "my country is better than yours" (I think Britain has a much better and fairer tort system than the American), but for those who follow legal principles, we know that what happens in Bristol will be occuring in Newark soon enough, and what happens in Los Angeles will occur in Belfast sooner or later in all likelyhood..
edited again to try to remove some typos and clean up grammar, etc...
