Hold on a mo

OK, so Nick Clegg said that there was nothing that could be done about this, but look at how he said it. He clearly wasn't comfortable with what he had to say. Was this because he's completely reversed his previous ideas about stopping this? Possibly. Was it because he's been told that the extradition won't be reversed? Almost certainly. Before kicking the LibDems, you should consider two things in relation to this:

1) It is supposed to be Theresa May (the Conservative Home Secretary) that's sorting this out.

2) The LibDems are by far and away the minority stake(power)holder in this new government.

If your attitude is held up by others, then maybe this is the first sign of the Conservatives managing to get the LibDems to take the blame for *their* failures.

Re: Hold your horses.

I think, while you are being a bit too charitable to Cameron's manservant, you have hit the nail on the head with:

"They haven't said they aren't going to halt the extradition, they simply seem to have come to the realisation, now that they have access to all the information, that it's not as straightforward as they perhaps first thought."

As is so often the case, the ConDems have had the luxury of sitting in the house, demanding XYZ and making promises to all and sundry. Then by some miracle, the situation changed and they are now in the hot seat.

All of a sudden, their grandiose claims and promises turn out to be impossible and Government returns to pretty much doing what the previous one did, with some tweaks by senior civil servants. You would think that *we* as a voting public would have learned from this, but we havent. We are still sold on brave promises and every 4/5 years we turn up at the polling booth believing this time it will be different.

Screams of an analogy to domestic violence but I wont go there today.

The fact is, Clegg is Deputy PM - such an important position we havent had one for years. He has less power than some of the MPs in his own party now. Cameron is in charge and is almost certainly going to use Clegg as his whipping boy for every unpopular decision. Its interesting that Clegg has authority when it comes to doing things Tory voters wont like but not for the rest of the time.

I am sure that deep down Clegg doesnt want to see McKinnon sent to Gitmo, but he isnt actually going to do anything about it. Politicans are good at words and claiming to be working on changing something but rarely does it happen.

If the Government really wanted to change the situation they would have. The fact that they havent, while changing other legislative hurdles, speaks for their true intent. So, in the end, McKinnon will either go to the US or he wont. It will be down to actors that the British public had no say in to decide his fate. Whatever happens the Camegg symbiote will claim it as a victory.

Simples

If he walks into a local shop and lifts some articles then he can get arrested in the UK for a UK crime. Then the justice secretary could set a court date for ... oh I don't know ... 2011. Then they have time to recind this nefarious law.

"they are getting rid of the ID card scheme"

Um, if I were you, I'd wait until it's actually done to congratulate them for it.

Just saying, is all.

You do have to wonder, don't you.

Pre election Clegg:

We should grow a pair and stand up to US bullying.

Post Election Clegg:

Bends over, pulls bum cheeks apart and tells Mr President to be as rough as he likes.

re Penguin's

I don't know if it applies to all breeds of penguin, but there are at least some that push a "friend" in first to let them check for predators by being lunch. If thier feathered friend survies a bit then they go join them.

yes, they can

they can change a law but not retrospectively enforce it.

Why not?

The extradition treaty was negotiated after the alleged crime took place, but it is being applied retrospectively.

..here we go again

Read the background. Nobody is saying he should not be prosecuted - what most reasonable people are saying is that he should be tried here (where he will get a just 6 months or suspended sentence for breach of the Computer Misuse Act) as opposed to 40-50 YEARS in an orange boiler-suit in the US (some states even want execution for him) - that added to the fact that the extradition agreement happened AFTER the hacking incident (and was not supposed to be retrospective).

I suppose you are one of those in favour of sending adulterous wives of Iranian men in the UK to Iran for trial too?

in the words of wackypeadians:

some states even want execution for him [citation please]

There are only 2 cases where exicution is an option in most states (and this is not even a state case, so state law need not apply):

Murder (even then it normally has to be "1st degree" or "premeditated"), Treason (doesn't apply since he is not a US citizen)

For a number of reasons, capital punishment is not as popular in the US as media would have you believe, not least among which being that actually having an exicution (with all the legal rigamore that has to happen beforeand) actually costs more then just locking someone up for life w/o the opertunity of parole. (FTR: I am against capial punishment, in all cases)

It's not what he found

that's the problem. It's the fact that he's made America look stupid. The US Authoraties can either fess up and admit to the public how bad they were, or they can lie through there teeth and make some stupid Brit the scapegoat.

If he's tried in the UK, the US will have to prove the machines didn't have default passwords on. They wont and they're left looking stupid.

If he's tried in the US, they can make out that only a super genius could have got through the defences and as such should be locked up for life. They can then go to the public and say "We got him" and everyone feels like justice has been served. Machines will default passwords are still setup and life goes on as normal.

Nothing to do with the fact E.T. retuned and is dating Lindsay Lohan.

The real surprise

"new ConDem Government which no one actually voted for"

Oh fr fuxake. There was me thinking that in the post-Brown/Labour years we would have an end to socially backward commentards shouting about governments who no-one voted for. Silly me.

Where's the STFU icon.

Voting

To be fair this really is a government no one voted for.

People voted for Tory MPs, Lib-Dem MPs, Labour MPs, Green MP (etc) with the idea that their constituency would be governed by the party with the most votes and the party with the most constituencies would get to run the country.

I doubt anyone voted for a ConDem MP....