Tim Worstall

Indefinite Internment

Are we not such lucky people to have such glorious people looking after out interests?

One of Britain’s most senior police officers has demanded a return to a
form of internment, with the power to lock up terror suspects
indefinitely without charge.

Yes, he really is saying that. Ahmed, I don’t like the look of the cut of your beard. In here please. Of course, there will be judicial oversight. But have a look at this from, Booker today:

Twice a retrial had to be ordered because the Crown
made such a hash of the prosecution (Customs and Excise in effect had
no case), until eventually in March 2005, when the two men had been put
through this hell for 22 months, a jury unanimously found them not
guilty.

When Ian Thornhill returned home to his
wife, whose personal bank account had also been frozen, his business
was gone. He had nothing to sell but his premises.

As
advised by lawyers, he did, however, have one hope. In such a case of
flagrant injustice, the home secretary had a discretionary power to
order an ex gratia sum in compensation. But in April 2006, when Mr
Thornhill was preparing to apply for such a payment, the then home
secretary, Charles Clarke, decided to scrap the scheme.

That’s plenty  of time to destroy a life: and now there’s not even a compensation scheme to cover the inevitable cock ups.

The real worry about all of these things is, of course, that it only needs the system to turn malevolent and we’re entirely screwed. To a large extent, all of our restrictions upon things like evidence, proof, don’t matter all that much as long as the system is benign: they’re there to protect us when it’s not.

And even if you don’t believe that this lot are malign, are you really happy that unknown future Govts will have the same powers?

In

10 responses

  1. Philip Hunt Avatar
    Philip Hunt

    I think we should intern all the people calling for internment.

    Reply
  2. Anthony North Avatar
    Anthony North

    As class barriers come down, servants become equal to the bosses. This is a good thing. But I can’t get it out of my head that organisations that are supposed to be our servants have gone the same way.
    I don’t think ‘malign’ fully covers it.

    Reply
  3. dearieme Avatar
    dearieme

    Anthony, they look upon us as their serfs.

    Reply
  4. Helen Avatar
    Helen

    You don’t need malevolence. Just plain incompetence and the normal anxiety to cover up that incompetence, no matter who suffers, will do.

    Reply
  5. Surreptitious Evil Avatar
    Surreptitious Evil

    Booker’s Notebook link is here. 🙂
    S-E

    Reply
  6. Surreptitious Evil Avatar
    Surreptitious Evil

    That would be here . 🙁

    Reply
  7. Roger Thornhill Avatar
    Roger Thornhill

    How many uprisings, protests and centuries got us the freedoms that made the UK so efficient and prosperous?
    A few decades and it could all be gone.

    Reply
  8. Laban Avatar
    Laban

    “This short-lived legislature left behind it a monument. It passed a Habeas Corpus Act which confirmed and strengthened the freedom of the individual against arbitrary arrest by the executive government. No Englishman, however great or however humble, could be imprisoned for more than a few days without grounds being shown against him in open court according to the settled law of the land… wherever the English language is spoken in any part of the world, wherever the authority of the British Imperial Crown or of the Government of the United States prevails, all law-abiding men breathe freely.
    The descent into despotism which has engulfed so many leading nations in the present age has made the virue of this enactment, sprung from English political genius, apparent even to the most thoughtless, the most ignorant, the most base.”
    Churchill on the 1679 Parliament. He didn’t live to see this lot.

    Reply
  9. DocBud Avatar
    DocBud

    As Tony Hancock would have put it: Does Magna Carta mean nothing to these people? Did she die in vain?

    Reply
  10. Opinionated Avatar
    Opinionated

    Why are these times so different? Why is there apathy in the face of tyranny? How is it possible, that in my lifetime I should have to witness the erosion of the right to a fair trial before a jury, the lurking menace of biochipping that’s around the corner, the indefinite detention without trial and without disclosure of persons thought to have “abnormal fixations” on particular ideas or “important” people?
    If you want to know the real reason why all of this is going on around us, look at what’s different in these times. In these times, we are stuck with the cowardly morality of religion’s legacy, without any sense of there being any divine authority who is above the king and who elevates the human being above the animals. Religious morality, without God. That’s why. I’m not advocating the cause of any religion, but the absence of this sense of certainty and predestiny seems to explain a lot.
    Western civilisation is in a fast downward spiral of decline. Unfortunately, rather like an insecure or weak person it will only become more reactionary in the future. The protectors have become too big and too powerful, and are becoming tyrants. In the human body, this condition is called cancer. There have been many despotic civilisations in the past. They all sought to bring “peace” by eliminating opposition. They came and went.

    Reply

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