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Originally Posted by Billcat
And let's be glad that is what we shall see, rather than some form of un-British (and, I hope, un-American) summary justice! The right to legal counsel, a fair trial, and a vigorous legal defense is one of the things that makes our countries pretty special. If we give up our most basic and cherished rights, then the terrorirsts will have gained a very significant victory.
That said, I certainly hope that the government is well-prepared to prosecute any terrorists!
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That may well have been true 20 or even 10 years ago Billcat, but unfortunatly what was once the common legal inheritance of both the US and England, stretching all the way back to Magna Carta, no longer applies in the latter case.
We have sold out to the European concepts of justice and human rights with the result that a multitude of summary obstacles now stand in the way of any successful prosecution of those committing acts of terrorism within or against the UK. We have a publicly funded legal industry whose sole purpose is no longer the execution of natural justice but to make money for it's practitioners, be they solicitors, barristers or court of appeal judges. That is why a dozen Afgan Hijackers are free to walk the streets of this country, why extremist clerics are free to preach hatred and promote violence and why child pornographers can claim damages of hundreds of thousands for a minor wound suffered in the course of an anti-terrorist raid. All of them, by the way, in receipt of free state housing and public doles.