Tag Archives: Magna Carta
The State, Domestic Extremism and Terrorism.
Posted by on October 28, 2013
The Fenian Dynamite Campaign was carried out between 1881 and 1885 when Irish-American Fenianism undertook a sustained terrorist campaign incorporating a series of explosions in British urban centres.The London Underground was the main target, with the bombing attacks creating a sense of terror throughout London. For the first time in British history, the Irish question was not confined to Ireland but now affected daily life in British cities through the unprecedented experience of political violence.
To combat this threat, a covert operation known as The Special Irish Branch was formed in 1883 whose a remit was to spy on and infiltrate Irish radicals. The Special Irish Branch eventually became known as simply The Special Branch and while it continued to spy on Irish activists, it soon broadened its remit as it moved to tackle what is now called “domestic extremism”. The role of The Special Branch, particularly in connection with domestic extremism, is possibly a source of greater controversy today than when it was involved in the late 19th century war on terror.
Sir Ethelred & the Sweeney
Posted by on March 2, 2013
The Government, especially MI5, wish the Justice and Security Bill enabling secret courts to be enacted. When enacted, the Justice and Security Bill will remove the last vestige of Magna Carta. A wish now reinforced by the recent trial of Vicky Price and the media furore raised when, in discharging the jury, Mr Justice Sweeney said:
In thirty years of criminal trials I have never come across this at this stage, never. Read more of this post
Magna Carta – No longer law
Posted by on August 3, 2011
From time to time the English resort to the Magna Carta as a source of their rights in Common Law. I happen to think that this is a totally misleading case and, if you will, an old chestnut. It reminds me of the 1926 Rex v Haddock case, when a one Albert Haddock lodged an appeal against what he regarded as a ‘unjust fine’. In a nutshell, a previous court fined Haddock the sum of two pounds plus costs, relating to the parking of a motor-vehicle, with an additional fine of one pound for conducting his defence in ‘rhyming couplets’. Haddock appealed the fine on the basis of the ‘Fourteenth Chapter of Magna Carta. This provides that:
A freeman shall not be amerced [that is; fined] for a small fault, but after the manner of the fault, and for a great fault after the greatness thereof…
