Does Magna Carta mean nothing to you?

[Michael Grove]

"DID SHE DIE IN VAIN?" asked a very exasperated Tony

Hancock playing the jury foreman in an episode of his

Half Hour. Clearly not. Far from dying, Magna Carta has

had a life longer, fuller and more influential than the most

optimistic medieval baron could have imagined.

But why is a charter from 1215, which was declared null and void by the Pope within weeks of being written, which doesn't mention "trial by jury" or "habeas corpus" • the right not to be held indefinitely without trial • and which forbids any woman from accusing a man of murder or manslaughter, seen as the foundation of our liberties and our law?

At its heart is THE IDEA that the law is not simply the whim of the king, or the government.

[IT] IS the great egalitarian legacy of  Magna Carta, that all are equal under the law, and all can be held to account.

[IT] IS THAT IDEA that gave birth to so many of our rights and freedoms, to parliamentary democracy, fair trial, and a series of controls on the abuse of arbitrary power.

              

                                                Clive Coleman - BBC legal correspondent

What this ALL very much equates to IS ...

THE EVOLUTION of an IDEA and SO ...

[IT] IS perhaps incumbent, from the perspective of

THE curious case of [BE]ing BRITISH, to NOW acknowledge the desire of Tim Berners-Lee to ensure that citiZENs and businesses can carry on benefiting from the revolution he sparked, by way of US ALL as passengers of Spaceship Earth focussing on the Spark in the Machine and TRULY ACKNOWLEDGE the opportunity which has presented [IT]self to realistically CHANGE THE WORLD FOR GOOD  through a process of the very urgent establishment of a GLOBAL EMPATHIC CIVILISATION !!!???

 

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[Michael Grove]

   Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web 25 years ago.

   So it’s worth a listen when he warns us: There’s a battle ahead.

   Eroding net neutrality, filter bubbles and centralizing corporate

   control all threaten the web’s wide-open spaces. It’s up to users

   to fight for the right to access and openness.

   The question is, What kind of Internet do we want?