Reid: I refuse to put people on trial, and it’s not my fault when they escape
In case anyone thought that John Reid’s decision to leave office, rather than be sacked by Gordon Brown, showed him developing something approaching a brain cell, think again. Just read today’s words of wisdom from El Baldo, courtesy of the BBC:
Unfortunately under these limitations, within the existing legal framework, it is very difficult to prevent determined individuals from absconding
The redtop scumsheets have of course step forward to print the Neo Labour propaganda as accepted fact. Of course giving people who have not been charged with any crime ‘human rights’ causes terrorism, they say. Leaving aside the notion that human rights are something ‘given’ to people by the state (complete nonsense, of course, to anyone who understands the definition of the term ‘human rights’), there is a more immediate reason for why these people can easily escape: they aren’t in jail.
“Ah!” say the proto-fascists. “That’s because of the Human Rights Act”. Complete and utter nonsense. The reason that these people aren’t in jail is that the government refuses to put them on trial. Yes, you read that right. These people, who the government claims are dangerous terrorists, are not being put on trial because John Reid and minions say so. The Lib Dems and Torys have tried to press the issue every time an ‘anti-terror’ bill has been put through the Commons, but to no avail.
What John Reid, and the bastions of quality British Journalism (sic) at the Sun, fail to realise is that this is a democratic country. In democratic countries, you do not put people in jail without first convicting them of a crime in a court of law. That was the case before the Human Rights Act was passed. It was the case before the European Convention on Human Rights was signed - the Sun says that the ECHR became part of UK law in 1998, in fact it became part of UK law when it was signed in 1950 (written by British lawyers by the way). It will still be the case if El Baldo derogates from parts of the ECHR, or if David ‘Snowballs chance in hell’ Cameron wins the next election and withdraws from the ECHR. Detention without trial is a violation of the most basic principles of our democratic society - ECHR or no ECHR.