Three Thousand Versts of Loneliness

At this time of year there are normally a plethora of retrospectives musing on the happenings of the previous 12 months. The credit crunch and the election of Barack Obama are two global events which will probably dominate most news and politics based assessments of 2008. There was also the small matter of a brief war which flared in the Caucasus following Georgian Prime Minister Mikhail Saaskashvili’s military adventurism. In British politics David Davis won admiration for the courage of his resignation prompted by the issue of 42 day detention. In contrast the DUP shamefully supported Brown’s government as the legislation scraped through the Commons, causing many commentators to suppose the party had extracted some manner of bribe in exchange for its votes. The Conservative party looked to be galloping toward an unassailable lead and a possible landslide in the next Parliament, but Labour began to claw back ground and recorded a useful win in the Glenrothes by-election . In ...

The Counter Terrorism Bill, which includes plans for 42 day pre charge detention, is due for its third reading in the House of Lords next month. It is likely to face a robust challenge and could well be voted down in parliament's second chamber. John le Carré, the novelist and former spy, has picked a particularly timely moment, therefore, to register his disgust at the proposed legislation. “I'm angry that there is so little anger around me at what is being done to our society, supposedly in order to protect it. We have been taken to war under false pretences, and stripped of our civil rights in an atmosphere of panic.” The author’s comments reflect widespread disillusionment, amongst those of liberal sensibility, with Labour’s systematic destruction of basic liberties. Arguments against erosion of freedom have married increasingly harmoniously with Conservative calls to preserve rights, fundamental to the UK’s constitution. David Davis MP enjoyed backing from both camp...

I watched the Kazakh film ‘Mongol’ on Friday night and it offered two hours of arrestingly ‘epic’ film making. A mythical interpretation of the history of Genghis Khan’s rise to prominence form the subject matter for the movie. Headstrong son of a tribal leader, Temudjin survives being repeatedly imprisoned, and fuelled by a combination of pride, tradition, love and faith, progresses to unite the various warring Mongol tribes. Aul' Genghis, as depicted in Russian director Sergei Bodrov’s film, is a cracking chap and an exponent of law, fair wages for his employees and the progression of women’s role in society. He is a dutiful husband and father, only compromised by his frequent absences and an inability to impregnate his wife (although he happily accepts all her offspring from other liaisons). I rather got the impression that if Genghis were around today, he’d take a dim view of 42 day pre-charge detention.

Whatever the exact motives for David Davis’ resignation from parliament, his actions will result in a thorough national debate being instigated on the importance of civil liberties to the United Kingdom. Gordon Brown’s claim that the public support his controversial 42 day pre-charge detention measure will be subjected to forensic scrutiny because Davis is intent on placing that specific debate within a broader context. This broader context will involve examining how highly British people value freedom as a central tenet of their state’s governance, and whether those foundational freedoms have been eroded incrementally to the extent that the ethos of our Kingdom has been undermined. If Davis’ narrative of erosion will prove ultimately convincing remains to be seen, but whether the British people decide that they are happy to cede certain freedoms in order to feel safer, or whether they agree with Davis that the pretext of security is being employed to bolster an ever more intrusive ...