Left Wing think tank, Unlock Democracy, recently ran a survey on what should go in a replacement Magna Carta. They didn’t want to know if people wanted a replacement Magna Carta of course because their raison d’être is to push for a new constitution written in a single document.

The thing is, we don’t need a new Magna Carta. All we need is for Magna Carta, Habeas Corpus, the Bill of Rights and the other constitutional laws – the European Communities Act excepted, obviously – to be upheld by judges rather than dismissed out of hand to protect multi-billion pound state-controlled rackets like on the spot fines (illegal under the Bill of Rights) or unacceptable assaults on our constitutional rights such as restrictions to the right of trial by jury (illegal under Magna Carta) or internment (illegal under the Habeas Corpus Act).

We already have all the rights we need and any attempt to supersede these fundamental rights and freedoms with a modern bill of rights and responsibilities would put a heavy emphasis on responsibilities at the expense of some carefully worded and heavily caveated rights that would legitimise the illegal deprivation of our rights and freedoms perpetrated by successive British governments.