Poor old Magna

Another of my gran's sayings was "You can't have the penny and the bun", by which she meant, make your mind up - you can't have it both ways. But have you noticed how this doesn't seem to apply to politicians? Consider two quotes from Tony Blair:-
1. "...when they [terrorists] seek to change our country, our way of life by these methods, we will not be changed."
2. "Let there be no mistake. The rules of the game are changing."
Excuse me? If the rules of the game, that is the way we live our lives, are changing, then the terrorists have already achieved their objective surely? And boy, are they changing! Not long ago, if the police wished to arrest me, they had to have a reasonable suspicion that I had committed, was in the process of committing, or was about to commit one of the more serious crimes ("an arrestable offence"). They then had 48 hours to charge me or release me, and if charged, bring me before a magistrate "at the earliest opportunity". In theory at least, this is still the case, but the reality is that, if I am arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (which may be for doing something completely innocent but which arouses someone's suspicion, for saying something that someone takes exception to or for simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time), I can be held without charge for at least a week and probably considerably longer. And proposals are currently under consideration for this to be extended to three months! The justification for this seems to be that the police need this sort of time-frame to investigate your computer, mobile phone records etc. But hang on a minute - surely this is putting the cart before the horse. What happened to the presumption of innocence? If they've no evidence, what are they doing arresting you? This idea of "we'll arrest you now, and hope to find the evidence after we've been through all your stuff" goes against all the principles of basic justice. To quote Tony Hancock (of beloved memory) "Does Magna Carta mean nothing to you? Did she die in vain?".