Just when you were thinking it must suck to live in England.  This is a must read to understand what will be coming to our shores soon enough:

[b]Traditional rights to go in judicial shake-up[/b]

July 19 2002

Britain has unveiled sweeping changes in its criminal justice system, [red]scrapping the ban on "double jeopardy", the 800-year-old legal principle that forbids trying a suspect twice for the same crime.[/red]

Other changes include making hearsay evidence admissible in court and letting jurors know of suspects' previous crimes.

The plan also introduces trial without jury in serious fraud cases where there is a risk of jury intimidation, allows the police to lock up dangerous sexual or violent offenders indefinitely, and adjusts sentencing guidelines to tailor the punishment to the criminal, not just the crime.

An explosion in violent crime - government statistics said street crime rose by 28per cent in the year to April 2002 - has put the ruling Labour Party under pressure to take tough measures to get criminals off the streets.

The Home Secretary, David Blunkett, said on Wednesday that the time had come to "rebalance the criminal justice system in favour of the victim and bring justice to all".

He added: "Rebalancing the system will not mean the defendant's rights to a fair trial and the presumption of innocence are compromised. But it will allow the rights of victims and witnesses to be given greater weight.

"We must stop thinking of victims as bit players in our system; they are central."

Mr Blunkett said new technology had created new forms of evidence, such as DNA testing, that made it easier to prove guilt.

When such evidence appeared, police should be allowed to reopen cases against murder and rape suspects, even if they had previously been found not guilty.

The Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who has famously promised to be "tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime", is determined that voters should see his Government as effective against criminals. But many people worry that age-old safeguards are being hastily dismantled.

[url=www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/07/18/1026898889358.html]Whole damn thing.[/url]

To quote a Subject who posted on another forum, that "well-trampled island" has sunk into the morass of Fascism.  Hitler won.

Tony Blair has been called Bubba Clinton's protégé.

Get the picture?

I just read that article myself before coming here.  This is very scary.  We have already okayed that walking all over the first and second amendments are okay (McCommie Fiengold, and the countless gun restrictions nationwide).Didn't think it would take long for other to get targeted as well.

I'd be willing to bet the dems will start pushing this garbage as soon as the next public shooting occurs.

It's amazing, we are becoming the enemy we have been fighting for the last 50 years!