BCA v Singh: Did the Skeptics *really* make a difference?

Henry II was regrettably given to childish tantrums during which his “grey eyes that glowed fiercely … grew bloodshot in anger”. He also fell to the floor and chewed straw.

Perhaps it wasn’t just emotional incontinence. He kept a large empire together in difficult times, expanded and, in many ways, improved it. It may not have been bad psychology for the people around him to fear his wrath.

Whether the rage was real, Henry’s contribution to standardising and centralising the law of his kingdom cannot be doubted. He energetically travelled miles to supervise legal proceedings, championed the use of juries and established the Royal Magistrate Courts. He also oversaw the decline in the outmoded use of trials by ordeal and combat.

Germans are known for their high degree of organisation, their bureaucratic mentality, and, of course, their Autobahn (which, in fact, did not originate with Hitler). When these three things come together, what do you get? Flensburg, that's what.

Their recent ‘Free Speech Is Not For Sale’ has provoked a welcome response from Jack Straw who has set up a group to respond to it. He, like many in the Conservative and Lib-Dem parties, seems to now be amenable to change in English libel laws. Evan Harris MP said: “There are reasons to be encouraged … there’s a kind of moment around the issue of free speech”.

In ‘The Merchant of Venice’ Lancelot tells the Jewish convert to Christianity, Jessica, that there is no mercy for her in heaven as she is the daughter of two Jews. Her only hope is that her mother got her with another man. In Lancelot's worldview, Jessica’s actions in life clearly cannot eradicate her ancestry on one hand, nor her mother’s adultery on the other. She says:

“That were a kind of bastard hope indeed, so the sins of my mother should be visited upon me”