Alarmism from The Economist?
Posted to Politics. 2 Responses
The Economist sayeth:
The British government, though, is seeking to change the law in order to lock up people with personality disorders that are thought to make them likely to commit crimes, before any crime is committed.
This seems rather unlikely, and a little alarmist. Anyone got any citations for this statement? They provide none in their article. The day we start locking people up who ‘might’ cause crimes is the day any idea of freedom in this society goes down the toilet (habeas corpus would need to be destroyed, for a start).
December 23rd, 2006 at 10:21 am
how about
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6157736.stm
How is this in any way unlikely, from a government who has introduced double jeopardy, restricted trial by jury, started jailing people for non-illegal, nuisance behaviour (ASBO’s), allowed presumptions of guilt to flow from silence (”if you do not reveal something you later rely on in court…”), forced financial institutions to assume all members of the public are guilty (money laundering regulations) etc?
“What about magna carta? did she die for nothing?”
December 23rd, 2006 at 11:56 am
Hey, thanks for that! Creepy! Luckily it looks like the back benches are ready to protest.
BTW, I understand you might be referring to ‘a government’ as the British government as a whole.. but if we’re just talking about Labour, then the “allowed presumptions of guilt to flow from silence” dates from 1994, although I personally have no problem with it. I don’t think it’s designed to allow you to incriminate yourself, but to provide further evidence of your innocence. And ASBOs.. even if they’ve been implemented poorly, they do have a pretty good intention. Most of the behavior they’re used upon should be illegal.. the people getting slapped with ASBOs tend to be menaces to society. The money laundering crap does piss me off though..