top spy speaks out

Former MI5 boss Stella Rimington is rocking the boat again:

Government accused of exploiting terrorism fear

love it. She did a similar interview in the Guardian last October, but it's worth reiterating, especially as the "war on terror" doctrine is still surviving in some parts of the media (as you can tell from the fact that her interviews make such a splash).

six weeks without charge

we're all shocked that the UK government actually got through with the "42 days detention without charge" thing. The police said they don't need it, the members of parliament don't want it and had to be arm-twisted, bribed, etc. to vote for it, and nobody understands the point of giving up the most fundamental freedom we have, the freedom of not being locked up without charge, for no good reason.

Shadow home secretary David Davis resigned from his seat, with this speech. Which really says it all -- if we need the tories to defend the most elementary human rights, we're in deep trouble.

There is also a comment by Timothy Garton Ash.

PS I was so busy jumping up and down pulling my hair out that I forgot to mention the comment by Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty.

Also, the time limits for detention without charge appear to be increasing exponentially with time:

2000 -- 7 days
2003 -- 14 days
2006 -- 28 days

So it's easy to work out that by 2036 we can be locked up for a lifetime (80 years) without being charged with anything. As the prisons are overcrowded already, one might have to build camps for that ...