BlogOfTheMoon

I was listening to the Today programme on Radio 4 as usual this morning, with John Humphries interviewing the deputy prime minister, John Prescott, when something really made me sit up and take notice. Humphries challenged Prescott on the emphasis on "security" (i.e. scaremongering) in the Queen's speech and made reference to the Civil Contingencies Act (which became law in the UK on the 18th November 2004) which allows for the suspension of virtually any Act of Parliament in the UK. That scared the hell out of me. Was I lax in not having heard about this? Some further digging revealed that it wasn't just my fault. There was a lack of coverage in the mainstream media, but there are a few websites covering the issue. Spyblog covers the major points of the bill (as it was then) very well, with an update here. As one of the commenters says, I.e. as of Thursday we have no legal protection against the govt should it decide to institute a dictatorship. How comforting.... Shame it's too late to do anything about it now, though.