Det brygger opp til styrkeprøve mellom Tony Blair og dommerstanden. Dommerne har en kastementalitet. De var tidligere konservative, men ser seg idag som forsvarere av individet overfor staten. I en tid der pendelen svinger fra frihet til sikkerhet, må det bety konfrontasjon med staten.

Britisk statsmannskunst, tradisjon og retorikk, gjør dette til en spennende forestilling. Blair snakker om «libertarian nonsense». Kan noen tenke seg Bondevik si noe lignende? I Norge er det kappestrid om hvem som er det beste menneske. Man kappes om å ta avstand fra det onde, og være for det gode.

Matthew d’Ancona skriver i Daily Telegraph hvordan dommerstand har gått over til å bli beskytter av menneskerettigheter, dvs. individet.

Increasingly, the judiciary defines itself as a regulator and monitor of the State, and has appropriated the law of human rights successfully to shore up this power. The postwar European Convention on Human Rights – drafted with noble intent so that -atrocities should never desecrate this continent again – has been reduced in this country to a charter for judicial caprice.

Mr Blair’s battle with the Bench has deep roots, then. But the July 7 attacks have transformed what was a constitutional aggravation into a potential threat to national security.
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Last week, Lord Goodhart, the distinguished human rights lawyer, said that «if under pressure of events, politicians introduce laws to protect public safety which restrict civil liberties to an unnecessary extent, then the judges have not only a right but a duty to say so».

That is true, up to a point. But it also suggests that the primary function of the judiciary in modern society is to protect the individual against the State. That may indeed be one function, but it is only one. Another is to see the rule of law preserved in the broadest sense: to bolster public confidence in the justice system, and to 2_kommentartain the security of the realm as Parliament defines it.

Blair har varslet at han ser dommerstandens liberale holdninger som et problem. Han har fått svar på tiltale:

Last week, the judges responded. Lord Ackner, a former Law Lord, declared that it was «rubbish» to suggest that politicians and judges are «all a team and should pull together». Lord Donaldson, the former Master of the Rolls, said that it was intrinsically «dangerous» to attack judges. «If the Government undermines the judiciary,» warned Lord Carlile, a deputy High Court judge, «then the judiciary might be tempted to undermine the Government.» This is as close as a member of the Bench gets to saying: Come and have a go if you think you’re hard enough.

Å mistenke staten for automatisk å gripe til kontrolltiltak er enøyd av dommerstanden. Terroren dreier seg om noe langt mer.

This time, it isn’t Blair’s knee that has jerked