Super-ASBOs

Presumably because ASBOs and control orders have been such a success (are you laughing? - neither am I), we are now to have super-ASBOs, which will be control orders not just for "terrorist suspects", but for ... well, pretty much anyone, really. All attempts to tackle criminality through the criminal law, with its burden of proof beyond reasonable doubt and with its juries (not to mention its concept of specific criminal offences with which one must be charged), now really does appear to have ceased.

ASBOs (which are at least little more than useless in most cases), control orders, majority verdicts (which by definition allow for conviction where there is reasonable doubt), stipendiary magistrates (moreover, sitting alone), erosions of the right to trial by jury, abolition of the right to silence, reversals of the burden of proof, the Civil Contingencies Act, the terrifying Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act (under which there need never now be another General Election, ever), abolition of the provision whereby a Bill which ran out of time was lost at the end of that parliamentary session (thus forcing governments to compromise with Parliament), and now this, with ID cards on the way. And that's not the half of it.

It is time to face the fact that Britain is approaching the final, fatal stage of a slow-motion coup. Act now, or lose the opportunity to do so. If the 2009 Election happens at all, then it really will be the last chance. Britain needs proper parliamentarians to restore her liberty, and no longer has proper parties capable of keeping them out if they have sufficent local support. Your country needs you!