TWO high-profile West Dorset residents will lead a public discussion in Lyme Regis on the tension between security and freedom.

West Dorset MP and Minister of State Oliver Letwin and Clive Stafford Smith OBE, legal director of Reprieve, will be attending.

Reprieve is a legal charity opposed to the death penalty, and Mr Stafford Smith has a track record of representing prisoners on death row in the USA and detainees in Guantanamo Bay.

He returns to Lyme Regis after last year talking to sixth formers at the Woodroffe School and speaking at a public meeting for the Heritage Coast U3A.

Mr Letwin is in the front line of the government’s key dual responsibilities – to protect the nation’s citizens and to preserve their traditional liberties.

The discussion, titled ‘Public security and private freedom: Can we have both?’ is in the Woodmead Halls on Friday, from 7.15pm.

The two speakers will explore, with the audience, the practical and philosophical difficulties facing a society that has long and deep traditions of civil liberty yet has experienced and continues to be threatened by terrorism.

The evening is not being set up as a traditional debate, it will be a ‘led discussion’, encouraging contributions and questions from the audience.

Organisers welcome advance notice of issues that audience members would like to address.

Suggestions may be emailed to chris@caboothroyd.net no later than Wednesday.

The evening is sponsored by the Lyme Regis Group of Amnesty International.

Admission is free, there is plenty of parking, and the bar will be available from 6.45pm.