Civil liberties

[Phil@sievers.com (Phil Payne)]

In message <30CF8070.1299@mailgw.sanders.lockheed.com> KSMITH1@mailgw.sanders.lockheed.com writes:

> I would speculate that your government's continued infringement of the
> right to keep and bear arms, guarenteed by your (and our by
> derivation) Magna Charta (at least for nobles) has proceeded mainly to
> make your police (and their controllers) feel "comfortable," no matter
> what excuse is made.

Ever read Magna Carta?  Apart from rabbiting on (at length) about
the right to maintain fish weirs on the Thames, it also expresses
some pretty anti-Semitic views.

(Minimal quattro content - an American friend spent Thanksgiving
 in the UK with her daughter and I took them down to Runnymede in
 the ur-quattro.  Then I took them shopping in Windsor, and wound
 up having to HURRY from Castle Street in Windsor to Terminal 4 at
 Heathrow.  14 minutes.  Don't try this in _anything_ else!
 The Runnymede site is interesting - the majority of the funding
 is provided by the American Bar Association.  There's a National
 Trust cafe and gift shop, but you can't buy a copy of the Magna
 Carta text.  My guests also proved utterly uninterested in the
 Kennedy Memorial.)

> And I seem to recall that, not long ago, the right to remain silent
> was infringed, by royal decree, wherein silence "may be construed as
> an indication of guilt."

Royal decree?  Lord no - we don't even let _them_ decide what colour
to paint their bathrooms.  (The only sensible decision made by a Royal
in recent times - and only a half-royal at that - was Diana's choice of
an Audi Cabriolet).  It was an Act of Parliament, and essentially
it changed nothing - the arresting officer has always been able to say
in evidence that "the accused remained silent".  All that has changed
is the guidance that a judge may give a jury.  Even _that_ has not
yet been tested by the Appeal Court - which has made a habit of
throwing out right-wing Tory legislation of late.

> Creeping civil liberty attenuation is a natural process of government,
> has occurred at all times in all cultures, and is unfortunately
> reversed rarely without force.  A majority of people, most of the
> time, prefer security to liberty, until they are forced to recognize
> that their opression affects their standard of living and thereby
> their security.

True.  Chou en Lai and Deng Xiaoping met our then Prime Minister
Edward Heath and discussed civil rights.  Deng's view was that China's
task was to provide three meals a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a
year for 1 1/2 billion people.  Once they weren't hungry, they'd get
interested in democracy in the normal way.

--
 Phil Payne

 Phone: +44 385302803  Fax: +44 1536723021  CIS: 100012,1660