Has 800 years of British Freedoms been auctioned off with our tax payers money?

I was appalled by yesterdays vote on the extension to 42 days of detention without charge. Partly because I believe this the extension to 42 days is totally unnecessary, unworkable and the Government has presented no remotely convincing evidence that it is needed.

The protection of British subjects not to be detained without charge dates back almost 800 years. It was set out in the Magna Carta, forming the backbone of legal systems right across the globe. Yet Britain’s current limit for detention without charge, at 28 days, is already the longest pre-charge detention period in the world.

Detaining someone for up to 6 weeks without even presenting them or their lawyer with any evidence against them; tramples on 800 years of our hard won freedoms. These freedoms have survived the middle ages, civil war, two global conflicts, the cold war and terrorism.

What concerns me almost as much is the suggestion made in parts of the media; that the support of Labour rebels and the Ulster Unionist party has been won in exchange for concessions.

Nick Robinson, speaking on the Today programme on Radio 4, said, “One Labour rebel was told he would get money for the Miners’ Compensation Fund in recent days. Another, that Gordon Brown would oppose sanctions on Cuba. Another who has not had a telephone call for 20 years from Gordon Brown had 20 minutes on the phone with Gordon Brown, pleading him to vote.”

Glancing at a front page in the newsagents this morning I saw figures of £200,000 mentioned in some concessions, paid for out of our tax payers money.

If this is true, this is nothing more than the auctioning off the very foundations of the British state! Gordon Brown and the rebels he bought should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.