Hilarious – but dangerous – cod legalism

I wrote in August about the ridiculous “freemen on the land”, and didn’t expect to return to the subject – but have written a piece for Comment is Free today in response to yesterday’s contribution from “commonly known as dom”. What he said was rightly criticised by both Legal Bizzle and Adam Wagner at the UK Human Rights Blog but I’ve taken a slightly different angle – focusing on why protesters and the left, in particular, should give freemanism short shrift:

The “freemen on the land” meme isn’t just dangerous: it’s politically unattractive, too. Freemen’s love of common law seems romantic at first, until you realise it implies a wish to turn back the clock to a time before democratic legislation, a time when some people really were lucky to be free and when others really were enslaved.

A bit of research on the internet shows that “freemen” can manage to confuse police officers and Magistrates’ Court on occasion – as almost any eccentric spouting Speakers’ Corner-style nonsense can cause confusion among those who are taken by surprise. It might not be worth writing about – except that it will help public servants if they’re able to spot a “freeman”, and know what sort of tactics to expect.

You can read the whole piece here.