Wednesday 11 June 2008

26 or 42 Days ?

1. Terrorist threat ? - At the moment our Government as usual are falling out with themselves this time over the period that a terror suspect can be held with out charge. Personally I think this is a tough one, at present Police can hold a suspected terrorist for 26 days before they must charge them or free them the Prime Minister is pushing for this to be increased to 42 days.
Well my initial reaction says I want my country to be as safe as possible and you should be able to hold fanatics and potential terrorists indefinately. However the more you think of it that is not what we stand for this is what happens in countries where democracy doesn't exist. Another question is if you don't have evidence that a person is guilty then why would you arrest them ? Surely 26 days should be enough the produce the evidence required most of it should be in place before the arrest.
Ok we could argue that a person could be released and be a threat but that could also happen after 42 days so I don't think that is a good enough reason. I am strongly for locking up (and even the death penalty in some cases) but we must keep been democratic and a person is innocent until proven guilty.
I accept it is a tough decision though and I'm still not certain what is a reasonable length of time to hold somebody without charge, what do you think ?

2. Music Choice - I've been very critical of our present government in recent posts, rightly so I think so for todays music choice I'm gonna play a song that is a tribute to a time when my country was great a time when we were the top dogs in the world, a time when the sun never set on the British Empire the greatest empire the world has ever known. It was the time we were led by probably the greatest Monarch Queen Victoria and remember its only just over 100 years ago her reign ended.
So the song "Victoria" by The Kinks with a great slide show to match.

3 comments:

Meow Meow said...

I agree with presumed innocent until proven guilty.

However, the press publicizes so much information before an actual trial that many people have an opinion formed.

much love sir mick***

airliebird58 said...

Well I think 42 days is a bit too much to be honest. If they can't get enough evidence on a suspect to charge after 26 days you'd think there is a good chance they are innocent.
What are your thoughts on David Davis' resignation. I have to say he spoke a lot of sense, even though he's a Tory!

Mick & Cathy said...

Rebecca,
You are correct, innocent until proven guilty is what living in a free country is about.

Airliebird,
I think David Davies as edged his bets to be honest and its just a publicity stunt. Before resigning he got agreement from the liberals not to stand against him and in his constituency they are the main opposition. Labour have no chance so he is confident he will win.
Saying that I think if a good independant candidate would put themselves up it could be interesting and he may have boobed.
He did speak a lot of common sense just the wrong way to go about it, whatever we think the 42 day decision was taken by a democratic vote so as to be accepted, thats what our country is about, you have to accept the decision of the majority whether you agree or not.