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Comments on: My building has every convenience http://sharpener.johnband.org/2006/08/my-building-has-every-convenience/ Trying to make a point Fri, 25 Jan 2008 12:21:35 +0000 hourly 1 By: Jherad http://sharpener.johnband.org/2006/08/my-building-has-every-convenience/#comment-27689 Thu, 10 Aug 2006 01:54:39 +0000 http://www.thesharpener.net/2006/08/08/my-building-has-every-convenience/#comment-27689 These wide open-ended rules and regulations seem to have popped up everywhere over the last few years.

One of the problems with laws which rely on a ‘blanket’, followed by a ‘don’t worry, it doesn’t really mean *everything* – we’ll only enforce when we feel necessary’ is that it confuses the heck out of the police, who, I don’t know… Detain people under the Terrorism Act for heckling. For example.

Or perhaps it isn’t confusion at all. Blair did call for a ‘radical extension of summary powers to police and local authorities’.

]]> By: Rob http://sharpener.johnband.org/2006/08/my-building-has-every-convenience/#comment-27671 Wed, 09 Aug 2006 22:39:43 +0000 http://www.thesharpener.net/2006/08/08/my-building-has-every-convenience/#comment-27671 Actually, not only does this phrase

What’s going on here though is that the creation of exceptionally wide state powers are created by undermining the rule of law

have more verbs than it needs, but central claim of the comment as a whole doesn’t make sense. Ignore it.

]]> By: Rob http://sharpener.johnband.org/2006/08/my-building-has-every-convenience/#comment-27595 Wed, 09 Aug 2006 15:45:05 +0000 http://www.thesharpener.net/2006/08/08/my-building-has-every-convenience/#comment-27595 What’s interesting about this is precisely that it’s not like a a system of law which is based on permissions rather than prohibitions, though, Dearieme. A system of law based on permissions has a list of things you’re allowed to do: presumably, the state, if it wishes to retain discretionary power, wants to be very precise about what you can do, so as to leave as much as possible in the realm of the forbidden and so potentially actionable. Thus, presumably, exceptionally wide state powers are compatible with a (formal) rule of law – the rules about what is allowed are publicly accessible, and so you know what you can do, if not necessarily what you can’t. What’s going on here though is that the creation of exceptionally wide state powers are created by undermining the rule of law: the definition of who is committing acts of terrrorism is so wide as to be capable of encompassing all kinds of activity, most of which, at any one time, will never be claimed to be terrorist. You never know whether what you’ve been doing makes you liable to early morning knocks on the door (and all that follows).

]]> By: Garry http://sharpener.johnband.org/2006/08/my-building-has-every-convenience/#comment-27544 Wed, 09 Aug 2006 13:22:53 +0000 http://www.thesharpener.net/2006/08/08/my-building-has-every-convenience/#comment-27544 The definition of terrorism is extraordinary. An objective application leads to many strange conclusions.

Bush’s refusal to rule out military action against Iran, in other words a threat of action designed to influence a government for the purpose of advancing a political cause, would probably also qualify.

Any actual war certainly would. Bush, Blair, Churchill… terrorists one and all.

Of course, as noted in the piece, the definition was never designed to be applied objectively. Quite the opposite.

]]> By: Phil Hunt http://sharpener.johnband.org/2006/08/my-building-has-every-convenience/#comment-27537 Wed, 09 Aug 2006 12:20:51 +0000 http://www.thesharpener.net/2006/08/08/my-building-has-every-convenience/#comment-27537 Amusingly, under the definition of terrorism in the Terrorism Act, the invasion of Iraq in 2003 was a terrorist act.

So Tony Blair, by his own definition, is a terrorist.

]]> By: dearieme http://sharpener.johnband.org/2006/08/my-building-has-every-convenience/#comment-27518 Wed, 09 Aug 2006 10:50:40 +0000 http://www.thesharpener.net/2006/08/08/my-building-has-every-convenience/#comment-27518 Well, not much point being in the EU and then complaining that we’re being dragged in the direction of the Continental tradition that you summarise so neatly at the end of your piece.

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