tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2788116642533708419.post5544991267552740631..comments2017-10-26T13:39:23.312+01:00Comments on Publawyer: Inept and SecretiveThe Chiefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06821563327259040800noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2788116642533708419.post-83738422962241340572007-07-30T15:38:00.000+01:002007-07-30T15:38:00.000+01:00It's a good point, but I don't think the smoking b...It's a good point, but I don't think the smoking ban and 56 day detention are part of the same trend. I think they're based on two different premises and that's why I'm quite content with one of them and think the other is a simply awful idea. It's not just because I don't smoke as I'm also pretty unlikely to be high on the police's terrorism hit list so I don't see that it would affect me personally. I'm also all for stopping people blowing up bits of London, the issue is one of proportionality when it comes to depriving people of liberty.<BR/><BR/>Asking smokers not to smoke where other people work is a very minor infringement when offset against 600 deaths a year - I don't know if the figures are correct, but I haven't see anything contrary to that so run with them for now. Locking someone up for two months because they have a beard is, to my mind at least, from a wholly different strand of authoritarianism. Ok, that's flippant, but extended detention is just one facet of a march to informal summary justice, part of which has been the expansion of the various Prevention of Terrorism Acts from the 1970s. It's the kind of all control that every government wants when in power and is easy for every opposition party to decry. The question is always, who would reverse this process?<BR/><BR/>More pressingly, now that KP has gone as well as Cook and Darryl do we have any chance in this Test?The Chiefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06821563327259040800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2788116642533708419.post-10609114857822500472007-07-27T22:13:00.000+01:002007-07-27T22:13:00.000+01:00Interesting times in consitutional affairs. Does o...Interesting times in consitutional affairs. Does our uncodified constitution work and if it 'aint broke don't fix it? Or do we need to formalise the relationship between the state and the individual.<BR/><BR/>Conservative blogs are buzzing with talk of growning authoritarism (e.g smoking ban, extended detention without trial etc...). Is this the grumblings of people in opposition or identification of a worrying trend?<BR/><BR/>Hope you had a good holiday.Richard Elliothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00565380446421416586noreply@blogger.com