MƒH MAGNA CARTA ~ Part II

Moments from History

I

ALTHOUGH THE original eight manuscripts of Magna Carta sent throughout the land by messenger contain no paragraphs and no numbered clauses - the numbering came later - Clause 39 is the bedrock of freedom. Through that equally ancient office of constable, for eleven years, I was entrusted to the keeping and maintaining of the Queen's Peace it reads thus …

Clause 39 affirms and decrees that …

“No free man shall be seized or imprisoned,
or stripped of his rights or possessions ...
except by the lawful judgment of his equals
or by the law of the land.”

— Magna Carta, 1215

Here, is established the international principle and rule of law, that no man, woman, or child, shall be imprisoned without a fair, just and honourable trial by jury. Even writing that opening sentence send a change through me, at the reality that there are men, yes and women, with such dark and evil minds that they have no conpunction to imprison children.

II

Many times have I been required to enforce the Queen's Peace.

Domestic disputes tumbling out of the front door and onto the street, or charging through flimsy fence or climbing wisteria, dividing neighbours; street brawls, or nights on the town that have spiralled out of control; and much more seriously, the bread riots and miners' strikes of the Seventies. The Thatcher riots of the Eighties were not yet upon us.

I would like to think that the modern constable will take with equal seriousness the enforcement of the King’s Peace. Try as I might, that confidence is absent.

I have no confidence in the British police service of 2023. When I wrote this Moment from History in 2021 I could not envision this absence of confidence.

If I am asked today about my past, I find myself increasingly whitewashing a twelve year span because, frankly put, the enquirer will not be able to see the marked contrast in policing then, and policing now.

III

By the late 1980s I was practising law from the other side. An unnerving experience because, suddenly, perspectives change, defendants are now clients, we seek the objective view, trying to see both sides, often succeeding, often failing, but somehow finding resolution, whether by skilful negotiation and a command of word and English usage, or by judgment through the courts.

But Freedom is at the centre of life and independence in these islands; a freedom, moreover, that has demanded payment of the highest sacrifices right up until the present, and continuing.

IV

Magna Carta did not solve all the problems. Indeed, within weeks, King John had fallen in favour again with the Pope who, at the King's request, annulled Magna Carta. Bad move! It lay on the shelf for a while, and as enlightenment increased, and long after King John had been succeeded by his son, the signal importance and imperative of this incredible legal document, was realised. Only this time, men were determined that the church would not outwit them.

The die was cast and our famous unwritten constitution began to evolve.

V

Magna Carta, for me, established social justice that carried on through parliamentary enactments over the ensuing centuries. These ‘acts of parliament’ on the one hand superseded Magna Carta, whilst recognising Magna Carta as their foundation stone, so that almost every ‘Bill’ before Parliament, upon receiving Royal Assent, over the next 800 years became Acts, and thus part of my own law in action as I like to call it (smiling).

VI

Clause 7 decrees that after her husband's death, a widow may have her marriage portion and inheritance at once and without trouble. It guarantees a woman the properties (both realty and personalty i.e. land, and anything else that is not land) of her late husband . And of course this now carries through, correctly so, to same sex marriage and civil partnerships. Clause 7 in countries unfamiliar with real, proactive democratic institutions and freedoms, find gender equality difficult to cope with.

In 2023, the world should be ashamed - the United Nations especially - of its inability to hold those religious tyrannies Iran and Afghanistan to account over their indefensible treatment of women and girls. Likewise those countries, yes, and that stench of self-righteousness, those christians, who deplore

VII

At this juncture, I'm recall the dictum Caveat Emptor - Let the Buyer Beware - in relation to the sale of goods and services.

I like to think that a caveat also serves notice in advance upon all who seek to oppose freedom, whether narrow minded or, more simply, those who have, yes, quite simply lost the plot - a polite reference to jihadist thuggery on the one hand or the awful rage of radical and extremist christrian fundamentalists on the other - BEWARE!

Winning a battle does not guarantee winning the war.

CIVILISED PEOPLES are slow to anger and swift to forgive.

But put a great cause before a truly democratic People and differences are set aside 'for the duration'; there is unity of purpose and their anger is unassuaged until their enemies, reluctant to admit defeat, to accept and face up to their total defeat, find themselves facing that most chilling demand of all : unconditional surrender.

And then in the true spirit of freedom and forgiveness, working with former foes to rebuild them, to strengthen them and set them on the right course again.

And this is the principle we have learned the hard way. We did not apply this principle in 1919, but, we certainly did, in 1945. Yet, in 2021, the world prefers to look upon 1945 as now just another long gone period of history, of no relevance.

VIII

Pie in the sky? Yes! If you're narrow minded!

But knowledge of history and an open mind enables one to hear the clarion calls of natural justice, equity and freedom behind two modern nations alone ~ Germany and Japan.

Clause 7 also proves the immeasurable power of those three words, three pillars:

Mercy, Compassion, Love

IX

Magna Carta did something else too. It struck at the root of arrogance by insisting that there was no such thing as the divine right of kings. Bearing in mind that this was 1215, that was bold!

I'm reminded of daesh meting out summary execution, so say, in the name of their god. They have done nothing more, nothing less, than to do the very thing that religious people of all religions go on about ~ that colourful illustration of evil personified in one being, who proclaimed that he would be above the stars of heaven, above even, the Most High.

How strange, that this still holds by vice-like grip the minds of millions who prefer to see ‘heaven’ as up in the sky somewhere.

X

This morning, Tuesday 21 December 2021, my thoughts lie with Myanmar and of a cruel, violent action, deliberate and unprovoked, by a bunch of tin-pot generals meting out to their people. When challenged by the BBC yesterday to account for the summary executions, the deliberate and prolonged acts of torture even on elderly people, the trauma of a young girl screaming, unable to cope with having seen what his thugs - he would call them his troops - did to her grandfather, moreover, despicable acts that the perpetrators insist shall be observed by the victims’ families ~ well, these things happen.

This is a man who should be behind bars. THIS is Myanmar today!

If we forget all else let us never forget this, for it rebuts the narrow-minded, and ejects warped and twisted ideologies, both here and, ominously, abroad throughout middle eastern lands, the far east, Myanmar, and stretching into all of the truly established democracies.

Ming Aung Laing - THESE THINGS HAPPEN!

The smooth calm face of Myanmar greed, power, rape, pillage, sanctioned torture, santioned terror, sanctioned insistence that families shall be made to witness these acts against their loved ones … Ming Aung Laing “These things happen!” to the BBC on 20 December 2021

25 January 2023
All Rights Reserved

© Kenneth Thomas Webb 2023

Written 31 July 2015