[mattduke]

The government is not changing. Everything is normal.

mainstream media

[smallpoxgirl]

Always nice to be reminded that no matter how royally screwed we are in the US, the UK is so much more screwed.

[mattduke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', 'A')lways nice to be reminded that no matter how royally screwed we are in the US, the UK is so much more screwed.

[smallpoxgirl]

Be sort of karma if the Brits got a taste of the interment without trial that they so nicely dished out to the Irish back in the 80's.

[jasonraymondson]

George Orwell sighs

[ForlornHope]

Very interesting.
The right to jury trial isn't just a hallowed principle but a practice that ensures that one class of people don't sit in judgement over another and the public have confidence in an open and representative justice system.

"What signal do we send to witnesses if the police can't even protect juries?"

These two paragraphs stand out in my mind, more than any other.
The first paragraph hits the issue spot on. Dating back to very early history in England, a trial/decision against an accused was done by peers, hence a jury. What appears to be happening/has happened in the UK is the severe stratification of society along many lines, social/financial/cultural et al. This stratification appears to make it significantly more difficult for the law makers and the law enforcers to actually provide an open and REPRESENTATIVE justice system.
Just as telling as the first paragraph, the second paragraph is chilling and sadly it appears too true. The inability of law enforcment officials to actually protect its citizens.
Remember: 'When truth and fairness are different from what is law, better it is to follow truth and fairness'
Forlorn Hope.

[dorlomin]

Jury trials are an Anglophonic tradition. Many countries have very different systems.

But this is really a side show compaired to alot of what is going on in the UK atm. But the big biggie, the ID cards and data base seem to be falling apart politicaly as their is little apatite for an expensive system and they may have over reached the technology too. The soon to be government, the Tories are vehement against this. Funnily enough Churchill made the need for ID cards that the NHS would introduce a major plank of his 1945 election. Made a very famous speach over it, no one believed him back then and lost the election by a landslide.

[dukey]

nothing surprises me anymore

[dorlomin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dukey', 'n')othing surprises me anymore

[ForlornHope]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('GASMON', 'A')AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chapman: Trouble at mill.
Cleveland: Oh no - what kind of trouble?
Chapman: One on't cross beams gone owt askew on treadle.
Cleveland: Pardon?
Chapman: One on't cross beams gone owt askew on treadle.
Cleveland: I don't understand what you're saying.
Chapman: [slightly irritatedly and with exaggeratedly clear accent] One of the cross beams has gone out askew on the treadle.
Cleveland: Well what on earth does that mean?
Chapman: *I* don't know - Mr Wentworth just told me to come in here and say that there was trouble at the mill, that's all - I didn't expect a kind of Spanish Inquisition

More at http://people.csail.mit.edu/paulfitz/sp ... cript.html


Gasmon

[Grautr]

A Crown court with a 12 man jury only happens in the bigger criminal cases in Britain. Most cases go to Magistrates court where you stand in front of 3 Magistrates who sentance you.