UK shame and US pride

UK shame and US pride

"I was struck by the symbolism of the coincidence. Within a day, the House of Commons passed the 42-day detention clause and the US supreme court decided that Guantánamo detainees did have the right to apply to the federal courts to challenge their detention under habeas corpus. A source of shame followed by a source of pride. On the surface, 42 days without charge is minuscule compared with the six years spent in Guantánamo Bay by hundreds of equally uncharged detainees. I do not believe that anyone in British detention would be subjected to anything like the kind of interrogation and treatment - whether you call it torture or not - dished out to the Guantánamo captives.

So why are you getting so excited about 42 days, I was asked? If it were just that, I would not be. But whereas the Americans' behaviour was one, admittedly hugely exaggerated, reaction to the events of 9/11, the British legislation is part of a systematic erosion of our civil liberties. Guantánamo, however grotesque, is a one-off, which may soon end; but 42 days is part of a pattern which includes ID cards, CCTV cameras, and a host of other measures whittling away our rights and the rule of law. Unlike Guantánamo, the British laws are meant to last".