Guy Aitchison (London, OK): On the eve of the crucial vote in the House of Lords on the issue, Liberty has published a collection of pieces by forty two of Britain's literary figures attacking the extension of pre-charge detention in terrorism cases to 42 days. They have set up a nifty little website dedicated to the collection as part of their Charge or Release campaign: www.42writers.com. It features the name of a different author in each of the forty two calendar days, illustrating quite graphically the sheer length of time the Government wants to imprison people for. It joins Amnesty's new campaign and petition against 42 Days you can sign up to here.
I spent an enjoyable half hour clicking through each of the calendar days, reading some powerful contributions from Philip Pullman, Monica Ali, Ian Rankin, Hari Kunzru and other literary big-hitters. What the authors do a great job of conveying (far better than any lawyer or political commentator could hope to) is the sheer length of time we're talking about and the intense personal trauma visited upon the innocent. I won't say much more than that because I hope people will check the site out for themselves. But I do want to quote in full the following poem by Ali Smith. By focusing on the simple passage of time, it asks the reader to empathise with the plight of an innocent detainee - a useful thought experiment perhaps for any of their lordships not quite convinced of the injustice of what is being proposed:
Sit quietly in a place that's not of your choosing.
Set the stopwatch to keep time for one minute.
Right.
You're guilty.
It doesn't matter that you aren't or mightn't be, you just are.
For just one second, imagine it.
For two seconds, imagine it.
For three consecutive seconds, imagine it.
You're presumed guilty
Though there's no evidence against you.
Repeat presumption until the sixtieth second.
There. The minute's up.
Take a deep breath.
Sixty minutes in an hour.
One thousand four hundred and forty minutes in a day.
Ten thousand and eighty minutes in a week.
Sixty thousand, four hundred and eighty minutes in forty two days.
The difference between August and October.
The difference between May and March.
Three million, six hundred and twenty eight thousand, eight hundred seconds.
Now, are you sitting comfortably?
No, you can't leave.
No, you can't go.
You've no right. It's the law.
Check out the rest of the contributions here.
