It couldn’t happen here

It couldn’t happen here.  But that’s what we said before they abolished (or tried to abolish) detention without trial, the presumption of innocence, the double jeopardy principle, the right to jury trial, the right to mock religion, and the full protection of the European Convention on Human Rights, all in the name of the defence of our liberal democracy against the threat of terrorism.

After all that, perhaps we should start to feel a little anxious about our right to turn out a government every few years.  Is it too far-fetched to wonder whether the idea might not have crossed the minds of those who increasingly see our fundamental liberties as a hindrance to the all-important task of combating the bad guys out there who "hate our freedom" and are out to kill us?  That, anyway, is the thought that has evidently crossed the mind of a serial blogger with a gift for doctoring websites.  I make no apology for strongly recommending this web page , especially to those familiar with the layout of the BBC News web pages and their resolutely neutral stance.  I speak not just as a proud Dad (as fathers are called nowadays) but also as an admirer of satire and expert forgery.  The website address is a giveaway: you can also get to it from here.

But it’s also a terrible warning of how the Web can deceive, or could in less scrupulous hands!

nb:  Comments on this or other Ephems posted after 4 pm GMT tomorrow (Sunday 5 November, Guy Fawkes Day) won’t be read, by me anyway, until early December — here’s why.  Uhuru!

Brian