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....when first we utter to deceive

The murky tangle surrounding the release of Abdelbaset Ali Al Magrahi begins, if that is possible, to get even more murky. The Prime Minister changes his views on whether victims of the IRA should sue Libya- an acknowledged paymaster of the murderous terrorist organisation.

Once he opposed this, now he supports it.

Meanwhile the Home Office has been forced to drop a control order against a Libyan terrorist suspect, since the House of Lords has instructed the Home Office to tell the suspect what he is actually suspected of doing.

The Orwellian nature of that last statement is obvious: at present, a suspect may not even know the accusations against him.

Even if one accepts that the details of the how the intelligence against the suspect has been gathered could remain confidential, it is a fundamental point of our system, dating back to Magna Carta, that no one shall be punished without facing due process: namely a trial.

If the system ceases to admit due process, then it is a very short step before government is conducted in a totally arbitrary way- in short it becomes tyrannical.

No punishment without trial.

Simple as that.
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Paul Walter said…
Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practise to deceive!
11:57 am
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