Civil liberties and terrorism

This one *isn't* science and it definitely *is* my personal opinion on some political issues. Recently, I've discussed (in the real world) our goverments attempts to bang people up without trial, on the grounds of vague terrorist threats. To which I would say They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety following Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759 (found here). After the end of internment, the IRA were still killing people and we didn't need these powers. Now, terrorists have killed *no-one* in then UK for years and sudddenly we need house arrest. No we don't.

Read the Liberty briefing on it.

BTW, I don't believe in some conspiracy, vast or otherwise, to take these liberties away. A more plausible explanation seems to be that the politicians would be dreadfully embarassed if there was some attack, and they hadn't been pushing the boundaries of what is permissible to try to stop it. That is an ignoble motive. [Don't you think you should soften that a bit, says my wife. Otherwise you're pontificating. Well, I'll leave it].

[Update (as I'm writing this): the govt have finally backed down partially and made the house arrest dependent on a judges say-so not the govts. Listening, over the past few weeks, to ministers on the radio explaining why this was really not possible made me want to bash my head against the wall because of its total illogic. Now they have essentially confessed they have been lying to us for weeks.]