The supremacy of Parliament and the lack of a written bill of rights does mean more malleability in such rights.

This is what I was referring to and engaged in some over-statement. Still, my beef was with Honza and Rudy, not the UK

Are they??? I’ve seen shocking things happening in the US that I would consider impossible in the UK. It’s true I haven’t been back there for a few years now… Still, I am surprised.

And, not surprisingly, aliens don’t have the same rights as citizens.

I am not “crying” dictatorship, but agreeing with the notion that if we do want an executive who can arbitrarily imprison people on his/her whim then we allow authoritarian elements to creep into our system.

The important part of that quote is:

One of the most fundamental bases for our claim to be a free country is the fact that we do not grant the President, or anyone else, the power to simply toss people in jail and throw away the key on nothing more than their own say-so.

Quite so.

While trotting out the word “dictatorship” may bit a jarring, it is perhaps worthwhile to consider some of the things that have been seeping into our politics in the past five plus years.

Sometimes liberties are lost not with a bang, but with a whimper.

At a minimum I tire of assertions of broad executive powers by present and want-to-be executives, and feel that they ought to be noted.

Montesquieu noted that tyranny (another word for dictatorship) emerges when one person, or group of persons hold executive, legislative and judicial power–which is what happens when a president can arbitrarily detain someone without review. It may be dictatorship in the micro, but dictatorship it is.

These powers are limited largely by jurisdiction and the hassle of carrying them out. Nevertheless, I do not smell the proverbial whiff of grapeshot or bite of cordite in the air, or consider myself to be in a dictatorship when I visit France, though Judges can double as prosecutors and police can hold people for purely administrative and discretionary reasons.

Or am I missing your point? Is it better when only judges have such powers but uniquely bad when the executive does?

Badck to Rudy though. Yes, his statemendt does sound extreme. Nevertheless, crying dictatorship seems to be overstating your case.