This evening, in a bombastic climax of measures that have been gradually chipping away at civil liberties for several years now, the government of the nation that brought you habeas corpus decided that after more than 790 years the magna carta just isn’t cool anymore. Gordon Brown and his cronies managed to get the measure through the Commons in spite of the 37 Labour MPs that rebelled against the whip and voted no (that’s a very high number of rebels for a Commons vote and it probably would have been higher had Brown not won over several individual Labour back-benchers with promises related to completely irrelevant issues, such as sanctions against Cuba). They won by nine votes, not coincidentally the exact same number as there are Democratic Unionist Party (Northern Irish) MPs—the DUP left their decision on the amendments quite literally to the last minute, after a private meeting with Gordon Brown in which he very probably struck some sort of deal with them. Their lips are sealed, but the accusations are flying--did Brown promise them more money for Nothern Ireland? Non-interference from Westminster on Northern Irish abortion law? Whatever it was, it can't have been worth it, and at the rate things are going he may not even be in power long enough to keep any promises made. The freedom of an entire nation has been sold for a handful of magic beans…Here's the timeline of events that kept me distracted from work all day.
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I heard about this on NPR yesterday and had a couple thoughts:
1. At least we're not alone.
2. As troubling as it is, at least your debate is taking place in parliament over there, in the light of day. You can vote the bastards out and overturn it if the will is there. Over here there has been no debate or vote. The erosion of liberties here has happened simply by executive fiat.
Another bit of perspective: while you brits, if the Lords go along with it, might add two weeks to the length of time needed to bring charges against a suspect, we have people in Gitmo who have been rotting there for years, have never been formally charged with anything and have been driven so insane by years of torture that they would never be competent enough to stand trial.
Kalid Shaikh Mohammed's decision to defend himself means this guy isn't going to get to make a constitutional case out of what is likely illegal detainment. Likely outcome, after Mr Mohammed gets a court sketch that doesn't make his nose look too big: the state obliges Mr Mohammed's wish to be executed, making him a martyr. No legal challenge to the constitutionality of the kind of mock courts used by third world dictatorships is made. The score? Terrorists: 2, Freedom and justice for all: 0.
Well in a contest among the Western democracies to see who can violate the most human rights the most efficiently, America is always going to win, but you wouldn't accept "So-and-so got into even more trouble than me at school today" as an excuse from an errant child, and the British people have a right to expect better than that from their government, even if opinion polls seem to suggest that many don't...
Anyway, this story is far from over, and the plot just thickened dramatically. In a move that has left the government bemused, the media confused, and his own party leader surprised and finding it difficult to hide his displeasure, Tory MP David Davis resigned from the Commons today, apparently without consulting anyone, with the stated intention of forcing an election in his constituency which he would then fight solely on the issue of the erosion of British freedoms. In a show of support the Liberal Democrats quickly followed with an announcement that they would not be fielding a candidate against him. What makes the move dramatic is the fact that this isn't a back-bench nobody looking to claim his 15 minutes of fame, but a senior party member with much to lose and little to gain by making waves. As shadow home secretary at a time when a conservative general election victory looks to be a real possibility in the near future, David Davis stood to be one of the most powerful politicians in Britain, but Tory leader David Cameron is unlikely to offer him the post again after a stunt like this.
And of course with respect to the freedoms he's pledged to fight for, it remains to be seen whether the results of this stunt will be good, bad, or just plain silly. Davis voted in favor of raising the detention limit from 14 days to 28, which may very well make many activists reluctant to rally around him, and all the Labour party would have to do to deny him the media coverage such a one-man mission requires would be to also not field a candidate in the election and thus leave him with no one to argue with while hardly anyone watches.
But today at least, everyone watched. Here's the speech that if nothing else surprised the nation. If you listen carefully you'll hear a reference to our home town--a few weeks ago our little and usually low-profile Borough of Crewe and Nantwich started a political revolution, but that's another story for another time...one thing's for sure--good, bad, or otherwise, it's an extremely interesting time to live in Britain!
Well, it turns out that freedom and justice still have some hope of restoration here on this side of the pond: Yesterday the Supreme Court, very nearly stacked by the forces of evil, voted 5-4 to allow the Gitmo prisoners to challenge their detentions in regular civilian courts. This is a major slap-down to Bush's kangaroo court system (or his plan to simply detain these prisoners indefinitely without even a fake trial). In a quote from the majority opinion that tugs right at my heartstrings, Justice Kennedy wrote, "Security subsists, too, in fidelity to freedom's first principles. Chief among these are freedom from arbitrary and unlawful restraint." Indeed, dear sir, indeed.
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