Through the good offices of Sunny Hundall of Liberal Conspiracy and Anthony Barnett of OurKingdom, an open letter in opposition to the 42 days proposal is on Comment is Free.
In 1961, John F. Kennedy addressed newspaper editors and publishers with these words:
We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent [...]

Raymond Horne (not, as the Daily Mirror insists on calling him, Raymond Thorne) is to be deported from Australia on his release from prison in a couple of weeks. Horne is a paedophile; I would venture that if he is still a ‘clear and present danger’, it might be best for him to remain in [...]

Prince Harry (or Cornet-2/Lt Wales or possibly Widow-Six-Seven, depending on who you ask) has fulfilled his wish to fight for his grandmother and country. It would seem that this was a sop to him for not resign his commission because he hadn’t been allowed to fight in the manner he had been trained - commander [...]

The Financial Times reports on the government’s proposals to do ’something’ about illegal file sharing. That something is to make ISPs the law enforcer; they will be penalised if people use their networks to share files. There has been talk of a ‘three-strikes’ system whereby ISPs would be obliged to remove service from their customers [...]

As Lord Denning put it, “justice in the country is open to all, like the Ritz Hotel”. This seems increasingly true of Mohammed al-Fayed and his pursuit of what appears to be a conspiracy theory. I do wonder whether someone who brands Prince Philip a ‘Nazi’, including under direct and specific questioning, before saying that [...]

I wrote here about the limits of the Wilson Doctrine and said
It’s not clear, equally, whether the Wilson doctrine would apply to Gerry Adams, Martin McGuiness, Michelle Gildernew, Conor Murphy and Pat Doherty (the Sinn Féin MPs who have not taken an oath of allegiance and so are barred from sitting at Westminster).
Imagine my surprise [...]

The implications of the failure of the attempted Christian Voice blasphemy action could be really rather wide-ranging. Firstly, it hamstrings the blasphemy laws which are, in and of themselves, incompatible with freedom of speech and are superseded by the Religious Hatred laws. It seems increasingly unlikely that any prosecution could be brought under the provisions [...]

The right of habeas corpus is a key right because, in the same way as petitions to Parliament, they make all other rights effective because, although they only demand a case be seen, they drag it into the sunlight.
Regrettably, the government seeks to extend the current maximum time that someone can be held without charge [...]

I’ve just heard a discussion on The Westminster Hour about talk that there will be a proposal in the Queen’s Speech to raise the limit for which terror suspects can be detained without charge from twenty-eight to ninety days. Any discussion of this sort is one of balance. Ultimately, the question it comes down to [...]

Tim Ireland is back online at b-heads.blogspot.com. In other news, the London Friends of Craig Murray report that Schillings are not going to sue Craig Murray because they don’t want to give him any more publicity. While that’s good for Murray, the words ’stable door’, ‘horse’ and ‘bolted’ spring to mind.
SpyBlog has also kindly posted [...]