From The Curate's Garden

First an apology - I have a number of new blogs linking to me, and I haven't yet reciprocated nor given their blogs a quick one-line review, as is my wont. I'll get there in time. But welcome to the Spinster and Anthony Cox, both back in full effect.

The battle for liberty continues - all those calling for an elected Lords should ponder that without them, we would already be liable to be locked up on the word of a Government minister. Anyone who thinks this would stop with Islamist terror suspects hasn't thought too much about the future.

There is a case for such detention in exceptional circumstances, such as Ulster in the early 70s. We're not in that situation.

The proposal to drop habeas corpus is one of the unintended side-effects of mass immigration. In 1939-45 it was suspended for domestic fascists and UK-domiciled Germans (most of whom were, of course, refugees fleeing Hitler). German Intelligence, throughout the war, had remarkably little information on what was happening in the UK.

The War on Terror is different in lots of ways. One way is that there are far more potential fifth-columnists - in the form of several million Muslims. Note the word is 'potential' - this is not some blanket accusation. But the Guardian and BBC have devoted many column inches and much airtime to the notion that the war is a 'War on Islam'. Were I living in a land where the media daily critised the Government for their 'War on Christians' it might make me think too.

Britain is now an open country, in immigration terms the equivalent of the drunk girl on the sofa as the party ends, being eyed up by a couple of dodgy lads. I can see why the Government are worried about a terrorist strike. But these people are British too. They are entitled to the same liberty as Englishmen have enjoyed for centuries. Better to take the risk than surrender liberty.

Churchill has a neat quote in his History of the English Speaking Peoples. James VI of Scotland has accepted the English throne after Elizabeth's death.

"So ignorant", says Trevelyan, "was James of England and her laws that at Newark, he ordered a cut-purse caught in the act to be hanged without a trial at a word from his royal mouth." The execution did not take place.

Without a trial. Sums it up. Don't let it happen. How ironic that the Patricia Hewitts of this world should be the ones to destroy freedom. What did C.S. Lewis say again ?

The barbarians come, Lewis told us, not over the parapet, not carrying their clubs and wielding their weapons, but they come with polished fingernails and blue pin-striped suits, gathering in well-lighted conference rooms. They are the good people who say that they know how to make life better for all of us.