dogsolitude_v2

793 years ago yesterday, in Runnymede, King John was shoved on a boat until he signed the Magna Carta. Well, not quite. The document was sealed rather than signed, and the boat may have been apocryphal.

Clause 29 had this bit in it:

XXIX. NO Freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or be disseised of his Freehold, or Liberties, or free Customs, or be outlawed, or exiled, or any other wise destroyed; nor will We not pass upon him, nor condemn him, but by lawful judgment of his Peers, or by the Law of the Land.

This was a bit of a first, as up 'til then you could be imprisoned without charge and put on trial without jury. In effect, the State could do pretty much what it like with you, peon. There was some other stuff in there, some of which is a bit strange today, but  the quotation above is the main bit which civil libertarians were talking about when the 42-day detention periuod was brought in (thanks to some vote-buying).

The Magna Carta is now being used as toilet paper in Downing Street. A spokesman for Gordon Brown said that it's unique absorbent qualities made for a superior user-experience which surpassed rivals Andrex and the one made by those bears.

In other news, Ireland actually got a referendum on the EU treaty amendments (unlike us). They've voted 'no', so we can now watch Eurocrats in Brussels try to find some way of worming it through anyway.

Today the House of Commons voted to allow detention, without charge, of 42 days for Terror Suspects. This is a far, far longer period than in any other comparable democracy. In most of the rest of Europe it's a couple of days.

Six weeks is enough for someone to lose their job, have their home reposessed and various other nasty things happen. If, after this period, an innocent person is released, they'll have a hell of a lot of rebuilding to do.

Veteran former Labour MP Tony Benn said: "I never thought I would be in the House of Commons on the day Magna Carta was repealed".

Luckily everyone hates Terrorists. The Sun campaigned long and hard to get this one through. How long before this is rolled out to paedophiles (who are next in the Public Hate Chain), drug smugglers (there or there abouts), armed robbery gangs (a bit lower down), political dissidents, people who don't pay their council tax, people wearing 'Bollocks to Blair' t-shirts and so forth?

Hopefully this godawful government will dissolve in the next general election. If the Conservatives get in the NHS, Education and services may  (OK, will undoubtedly) suffer some cuts but at least we may get some of these blasted Totalitarian Police State laws repealed.

Not read this yet, but it looked interesting:

Henry David Thoreau: Civil Disobedience - 1849

"Thus the State never intentionally confronts a man's sense, intellectual or moral, but only his body, his senses. It is not armed with superior wit or honesty, but with superior physical strength. I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion."

Sounds cool. This clearly needs to be read at some point, though be assured if it's a complete crock of sock I'll let you know.