h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

And the good news is;

by a majority of 31 a law seeking to extend the arbitary detention of persons for 90 days has been rejected in the UK.

You know we tend to condemn the practice of detaining political prisoners indefinitely without charge. - When it happens in other countries that is, you know, the ones with the wrong sort of government. As if somehow it is only in corrupt dictatorships that the indefinite detaining of persons without charge could be a bad thing.

(90 days may not be indefinite. But I bet it can feel like it if you know not the cause, reasons or evidence for your detention)

"How, possibly, could such a power be abused in a democracy?" they appear to ask us. How could we possibly suspect anything but the most honourable intentions of the honorable gentlemen and ladies of the government?

Because even if one were to belive in nothing less than the most pure and noble of intentions of all our servants; all those most honorable members; all the noble, tireless persons of the police force; even then one might be aware that even the best of intentions can be subject to corruption.

The road to hell, they say, is paved with exactly this type and hue of intention.