Liberty Balance

This past Wednesday, Tony Blair suffered a major defeat, according to the press, after “losing” a decision that would have increased powers to the police. The legislation has to do with the fight on terror, British style, and to allow police to hold “terror” suspects, without charge for 14 days. Blair, in his wisdom, wanted to change that number to 90, but his government was out voted and the number was reduced to 28. This means that police can arrest a person they suspect has broken the law for four weeks without charging them with a particular crime.

The United States has a similar law, passed 45 days after September 11, 2001. It’s called the Patriot Act. Although approved by congress, most of the senators and representatives didn’t read it. Similar legislation exists in Britain, but it looks like their MPs take the time to think about the implications of such laws.

The mainstream media missed the real story by emphasizing the political implications for the Prime Minister of Britain. What they need to report on is the increasing number of laws passed over the last 4 years that restrict civil liberties. The Patriot Act, so named in the best Orwellian language, was only noted briefly by the press because the shock of the terrorist attacks on NYC was still fresh in their minds. What better than to quickly pass highly restrictive legislation when everyone is looking the other way. [some might call this a weapon of mass distraction]

Benjamin Franklin once said, “they that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Clearly, our notions of how safe we feel are completely subjective, be it walking down a dark alley at night or boarding an airplane. How certain can we be?

In Britain they need 28 days to be sure.

That’s just my opinion. I could be wrong.