#MagnaCarta 800th anniversary and #SocialSecurity This year (15 June) we’ll mark the 800th anniversary of the signing of Magna Carta. The commemorations will include a TV documentary, a Magna Carta cycle trail, a visit by 800 American lawyers and, I kid you not, a new roundabout on the A308. A lot of the people I usually agree with will be exasperated by all this. To be sure, we’re going to see the usual harrumphing and self-congratulation that surrounds anything to do with “#heritage”. And undoubtedly there will be attempts to use the celebrations to promote a #reactionary agenda: we’ve already seen Magna Carta being used to justify plans to repeal the Human Rights Act 1998 According to The British Library’s translation of Magna Carta, only four clauses are “still valid”, but two of them seem very appropriate to the twenty-first century: * (39) No free man shall be #seized or #imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or #possessions, or #outlawed or #exiled, or #deprived of his standing in any way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land. * (40) To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or #justice. After eight hundred years it is time to challenge the assumption that Magna Carta does not apply to social security.
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 16:03:48 +0000
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