UK Can Now Hold People Without Charge For 42 Days

the_leander writes "Prime Minister Gordon Brown has narrowly won a House of Commons vote on extending the maximum time police can hold terror suspects to 42 days. There is talk of compensation packages available for the falsely accused. The chances of you getting that money however are slim to none, lets not forget, this is the same country that charges prisoners who have been falsely accused for bed and boarding costs."

The Question

[Anonymous Coward]

Is that 42 in base 13?

At least...

[NoobixCube]

At least the English know not to do something like Guantanamo Bay. They tried that 220 years ago, and created Australia.

Obligitory

[Anonymous Coward]

The answer to life, the universe and everything now includes the number of days the UK can hold you without charges.

Billing the prisoners

[zmollusc]

Did they pass the bill for charging prisoners for their Information Retrieval Procedures yet? Is that next week?

Re:With two words, I destroy your argument

[ender81b]

I, obviously, do not condone the actions of things like guantanomo bay or abu whatever-the-fuck. With that said, isolate incidents are isolated incident (abu ghraib being a really good example, yeah a ton fo people fucked up, but it's not a policy of the united states to do the things that were do at abu ghraib). The fact is, it reminds against the law to withold someone without charges for more than 48 hours if they are a citizen.

IN the UK they can detain you for 42 days.. if you are a citizen.. with no charges. I find the implications disturbing.

Re:At least...

[invader_vim]

So you're saying that in 200 years, the descendants of the Guantanamo Bay inmates are going to thrash the Americans at all their sports?

Re:The Question

[Dunbal]

Nobody makes jokes in base 13...

42 days

[elmartinos]

Looks like the Brits finally have acknowledged that 42 is the answer to everything.

Re:Jumping the gun a bit....

[iworm]

You asked: "What do your lords use for guidance over there?"

The answer is "whether or not they had a jolly good lunch at the club."

Re:The Question

[martin-boundary]

Va Fbivrg Ehffvn, onfr 13 rapelcgf wbxrf.

Re:Jumping the gun a bit....

[kraut]

> Yes! You know who else was part of that fine tradition? Stalin, Hitler, Mussolin
All three renowned for being upstanding members of the house of Lords?

Re:Jumping the gun a bit....

[Admiral Ag]

"Though as a Tory and programmer I think it's like a very old piece of code which has been patched for a long time, hard to understand but for good reasons. "

So essentially you're saying it is like Microsoft Windows. That should go down well here.

Re:Jumping the gun a bit....

[ksb]

Ah someone with some knowledge, spoilsport, just as this thread was dipping into comparisons between the House of Lords and The Nazi party ;)

Gordon Brown should be shot

[damburger]

See you all in 42 days...

Re:Jumping the gun a bit....

[alan.briolat]

Wow - I think that is the only time I've ever seen somebody try to trump tabloid "evidence" with a blog post...

Not saying that I disagree with the point that the Daily Mail is junk =)

Re:Jumping the gun a bit....

[meringuoid]

So essentially you're saying it is like Microsoft Windows. That should go down well here.

Well, let's rewrite the analogy in more /. terms. The Americans - and many other countries - have monolithic constitutions. Ours is modular - a mass of different reform acts and statutes and precedents, on top of the Monarch E2 microconstitution. Britain's running on Hurd, thank you very much.

Re:The Question

[Anonymous Coward]

Nobody makes jokes in base 13...

Your assertion is baseless..

Re:Slashdot, as usual, can't wait to bash Britain.

[hldn]

hey im from bumfuck, iowa you insensitive clod.

Re:The Question

[Anonymous Coward]

Depends on where you live. If you happen to live in the US, well, then I can only say, I'm happy to have met you before your relocation to a certain bay.

Well, you could always escape from that bay then travel through the south with NPH and smoke weed laced with coke with a certain leader and get a pardon...

Re:Jumping the gun a bit....

[jimdread]

Only after the bill has passed both houses does it then go to Her Majesty The Queen for Royal Ascent.

Is Royal Ascent when the Queen climbs on top of the bill? Or did you mean Royal Assent?

Re:Jumping the gun a bit....

[Stooshie]

... Yes! You know who else was part of that fine tradition? Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini ...

No they weren't, they had no sanity checks by a second chamber.

By the way, Hitler was elected by the popular vote by spouting populist nonsense.

Re:Jumping the gun a bit....

[mpe]

I'm for this 42 day thing myself.

See you in 42 days then :)

Re:Slashdot, as usual, can't wait to bash Britain.

[MagdJTK]

To hell with facts, let's just post grossly misrepresented stories.

Exactly. The article even states that the bill hasn't gone through the Lords in the third paragraph.

Still doesn't stop some idiot Yank from going on about how we're all fellating Big Brother (while his government pays someone to urinate on a naked human pyramid of "unlawful combatants").

Re:Jumping the gun a bit....

[cyber-vandal]

Douglas Hurd? That explains a lot...

Re:The Question

[DoofusOfDeath]

Is that 42 in base 13?

Does it matter? All your bases belong to UK govt.

Re:You may have violated the DMCA by decoding...

[Tango42]

Yet more evidence that farming is a danger to our society and way of life and should be stamped out at all costs.