Bob Geldof’s editorial against the new British law that suspends habeas corpus by making it possible for the authorities to lock us up for 42 days without charging us with anything ( (even more than the old law that suspended habeas corpus by letting them do it for 25 days) really nails it:
Still today, 800 years later, Magna Carta resonates: “To no man will we deny, To no man will we delay, Justice and Right.” Is that not grand, worthy of your vote? Is habeas corpus to be traduced in one sad moment of political expediency? Do we not clearly deny and delay Justice and Right when we imprison a person for 42 days without charge?
What existential threat do we face greater than those of the past 800 years? What great terror exists today that not civil war, not world war, nor recent other terrorisms could make our forefathers change the fundamental basis of this state? What is so dangerous that our oldest statutes could be upended for such a ha’p’orth of momentary panic?
(via Blogzilla)