A Not-So-Happy Birthday for the Magna Carta

Not happy at all, given that the Brits just extended the amount of time that the law allows uncharged suspects to be kept in custody. I can't find the audio clip, but this morning the BBC included a snippet of a member of the House of Commons pointing out what should be obvious to Gordon Brown - that the bin Ladens of the world no longer need to work so diligently now that secular democracies are now taking it upon ourselves to curtail our own freedoms.

On this side of the Atlantic the Constitution has been at least as trashed in the last several years, motivated by similar fears and rationalized with those same fears. But Brit pols seem to have more balls than American pols; this Tory is so horrified by the decision that he's resigning his position. Then again, if one house rep resigned for each of the major constitutional crimes committed in the last few years (yes, that's a euphemism for the reign of the Bush administration), DC would be a ghost town in no time and who would finally prosecute the scores of offenders?