Every demand for political power is now framed as an earnest plea for a new right, a morally bullying appeal too often backed up by a modern state with a reach beyond King John’s wildest fantasies. The Guardian’s Guy Standing offers the opinion that a modern Magna Carta should establish high taxes, nationalization, and hefty welfare payments as rights. What’s mine is mine, and so is what’s yours — it would be hard to think of an appeal less in keeping with the spirit of the original.
