The ideed that politicians have "created new rights," or "introduced new freedoms" is a mockery by these small and crafted steps in shifting the constraints placed on historic English freedoms - which were WON, not granted or created.

that should have been "idea"

we have given people new rights

Hurrah to Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grammes a week.

For what it's worth, when George Bush travels around this "free" country the Secret Service sets up what they call (with a straight face) "free speech zones" wherein protesters are permitted to demonstrate. Of course, these zones tend to be far away from the President and the media, so demonstrations there don't serve much purpose. And if you try to demonstrate anywhere else you'll be arrested and detained in the local jail until he's moved on (although never actually charged with anything, of course).

Things aren't much better on this side of the Pond

We, the people, hereby grant Gordon Brown the right to breathe.

This right may, of course, be withdrawn if he does not exercise it responsibly.

That's 42 days for Brian whilst the police go through his computer.

Gordon Brown, the king of understated humour. He's got to be. Someone's having a laugh.

I wonder what rights you traded in for the new ones?

Hey, I just had a thought! (yes, it was painful.)
Does this mean that Labour is now a right-wing party? What is left for Cameron to peddle to the electorate?

Alisa, I have wondered for some time now- what are rights like in Israel proper? How long can Israeli cops detain people?
And have you ever thought of having a 'Sorry' Day? It's easy to arrange, and looks good on TV, and you don't need to actually give money! We tried it here in Oz, though it didn't please ALL the munchkins! Some are still muttering about 'compensation', but the 'Sorry' Day ceremony seems to have used up all of our spare cash. Fancy that!

God, I'd really love it if David Davis, having won his by-election, did a re-run of the Pilgrimage of Grace (from the same constituency, incidentally) slow-gathering march on London to demand a return of our liberties and democracy. Anyone up for it?

Every street corner should have a poster stuck up!

@Curly: Maybe, but not that one! See the comment I left at your blog.

As for the quote - How stupid does he think we are? Does Gordon think we'd forget that it was Labour that took those rights away in the first place?

Nick, the problems are mostly outside of "Israel proper".

Alisa, I was really wondering how your politicians react to crises. Do they grab for more power, with the promise of more security? How intrusive is the state in an average person's life? For instance, how high are taxes?

Nick, we are not nearly as hysterical about security as the Brits or the Americans, since we are used to the fact that full (or even what you would consider reasonable) security simply isn't possible in this neighborhood. If you read that Wiki link about administrative detention in the territories, you'll see that in 1979 the original 1945 law (adopted from the British mandate period) was changed to be applied only in times of emergency. It has been continuously applied ever since, as the state of emergency was never canceled. As I said, it has no significant influence on Israelis (both Jewish and Arab) inside the Green Line, although it is very problematic in the territories. The government doesn't even pretend to offer security any more (see Sderot).

As to taxes, we used to be a classical socialist state until the 80ies, when the economy has nearly collapsed, and the politicians (the Likud, that had no socialist agenda anyway) had the sense to reform. The taxes and gov. spending have been (grudgingly) generally going down since then.

The main problem we have is with regulation, both in the market (that prevents competition), and regular nannyism, such as anti-smoking laws, bicycle helmets and the rest. We also still have an almost entirely socialized healthcare and education - lucky us!

All that said, our politicians have never had the gall to think that they are in a position to be giving us our rights (although it has never prevented them from taking them away).

Check my blog occasionally for more:-)

Alisa - I'm a Brit and I am not at all hytsreical about security. Our government might for its own political ends, and the soap opera fans might be, but not I.

Alisa - I'm a Brit and I am not at all hytsreical about security. Our government might for its own political ends, and the soap opera fans might be, but not I.

Lola, I apologize, of course I meant your government.

Alisa, your politicians don't have the gall... Would you like to swap? Yours for ours? Yours sound positivelt lovely!!!

The problem is not your politicians, it's you (plural):-) We are quite an unruly bunch, for better and worse.

Guy.

Mr Brown's words show such unthinking evil that I do not know where to start.

So it is fortunate that other people's comments above have done the job.