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| Magna Carta commemorations – live updates | Magna Carta commemorations – live updates |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| 10.55am BST10:55 | |
| The Queen has just unveiled a plaque to commemorate 800 years of Magna Carta. And now, to the tune of Aaron Copland’s Fanfare to the Common Man, Princess Anne is about to rededicate the American Bar Association’s Magna Carta Memorial. | |
| 10.52am BST10:52 | |
| David Cameron’s office tweeted the key points of his speech. | |
| PM: 800 years ago, on this day, King John put his seal to a document that would change the world. #MagnaCarta | |
| PM: The limits of executive power, guaranteed access to justice, the rule of law, shouldn’t be imprisonment without trial. #MagnaCarta | |
| PM: What happened here eight centuries ago is as relevant today as it was then. And that relevance extends far beyond Britain. #MagnaCarta | |
| PM: All over the world, people are still struggling to live by the rule of law and to see their governments subject to that law. #MagnaCarta | |
| PM: The countries that have these things tend to be the long term successes. Those who don’t tend to be the long term failures. #MagnaCarta | |
| PM: What is taken for granted here in Britain, is what others are crying out for, hoping for, praying for. #MagnaCarta | |
| PM: This great charter shaped the world for the best part of a millennium helping to promote arguments for justice and freedom. #MagnaCarta | |
| PM: The clauses inspiring those who fought in the English Civil War, giving fuel to the Chartists, succour to the Suffragettes. #MagnaCarta | |
| PM: The seeds sown here have grown throughout the world. In America; in India with Gandhi and South Africa with Nelson Mandela. #MagnaCarta | |
| PM: #MagnaCarta is something every person in Britain should be proud of. Its copies may be faded, but its principles shine as brightly. | |
| PM: Liberty, justice, democracy, the rule of law – we hold these things dear and they took shape right here by the Thames. #MagnaCarta | |
| PM: So on this historic day, let’s pledge to keep those principles alight. Let’s keep #MagnaCarta alive. | |
| 10.46am BST10:46 | |
| The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, takes the Magna Carta podium. He acknowledges the church’s historical failure to uphold the principles of Magna Carta, citing the church’s tolerating “all sorts of abuses”, support for land enclosures and opposition to the great reform act of 1832. | |
| But he also cites “great moments” when the church has uphold Magna Carta principles, including support for the miners in the 19th century and in the 1980s. “A church alongside the poorest,” Welby says. | |
| Welby says the relationship between the church and state has been fraught. He ends with this plea. “Together as critical friends we must seek the principled and active betterment of society as a whole, ensuring that all the rights and liberties ... and in the words of Magna Carta enjoyed in their entirety with lasting strength forever.” | |
| 10.33am BST10:33 | |
| “Magna Carta is something everyone in Britain should be proud of,” Cameron says. | |
| Let us pledge to keep those principles alive, he adds. | |
| 10.32am BST10:32 | |
| Prime David Cameron has begun speaking at Runnymede. He claims Magna Carta’s clauses have “echoed through the ages”. He cites Indian independence, the fight against apartheid in South Africa, and votes for women. | |
| 10.30am BST10:30 | |
| Queen arrives | |
| As the Queen arrives at Runnymede the Supreme Court has unveiled a new translation of the Magna Carta. | |
| Read English translation of #MagnaCarta in new exemplification, on display in UKSC exhibition area 0930-1630 weekdays pic.twitter.com/j7KKrg7VdE | |
| Supreme court justices are divided over the significance of the Magna Carta and its relevance today. | |
| Lady Hale reckons three great ideas can all be found in the original Magna Carta. | |
| The idea that fundamental rights can only be taken away or interfered with by due process and in accordance with the law (though whether “and” means “and” or “or” is still controversial, as we shall see); the idea that government rests upon the consent of the governed; and the idea that government as well as the governed is bound by the law. No wonder the lawyers get so excited by it. | |
| The values which underpinned the Magna Cartas of 1215 and 1225 are as important in today’s world as they were then and as much in need of protection in our courts. | |
| But Lord Sumption is a self-confessed “Magna Carta sceptic”. | |
| I have no problem about the values which the charter is commonly supposed to express. But I have the utmost difficulty in finding them anywhere in the charter. There are no high-flown declarations of principle here. No truths are held to be self-evident. No rights are declared to be inalienable. No claims are made to universal validity. Medieval latinists were perfectly capable of flights of rhetoric, but there aren’t any in Magna Carta. The document is long. It is technical. And it is turgid. | |
| 10.13am BST10:13 | 10.13am BST10:13 |
| Lib Dem leadership front runner Tim Farron has marked the 800th anniversary to urge the government not to scrap the Human Rights Act. Writing on Comment is free he argues the act is is a direct descendant of the Magna Cart and that Tory plans to scrap it will destroy freedoms in Britain. | Lib Dem leadership front runner Tim Farron has marked the 800th anniversary to urge the government not to scrap the Human Rights Act. Writing on Comment is free he argues the act is is a direct descendant of the Magna Cart and that Tory plans to scrap it will destroy freedoms in Britain. |
| Now the Tories wants to repeal it. Their sales pitch is about sovereignty – Britain’s over Europe, parliament’s over the courts. Don’t fall for it. You are being duped. Our Human Rights Act specifically preserves the power of British judges to disagree with the Strasbourg court – a power they use. And it preserves parliamentary sovereignty, allowing the courts to only declare legislation “incompatible” with human rights, not strike it down. If David Cameron really cares about these things, he should be championing the act, not trying to scrap it ... | Now the Tories wants to repeal it. Their sales pitch is about sovereignty – Britain’s over Europe, parliament’s over the courts. Don’t fall for it. You are being duped. Our Human Rights Act specifically preserves the power of British judges to disagree with the Strasbourg court – a power they use. And it preserves parliamentary sovereignty, allowing the courts to only declare legislation “incompatible” with human rights, not strike it down. If David Cameron really cares about these things, he should be championing the act, not trying to scrap it ... |
| It is no coincidence that, a short stroll up the hill from the Magna Carta commemoration in Runnymede, sits another mark to history – the Kennedy Memorial. When the early colonists arrived in America, they brought with them the principles of the Magna Carta, and enshrined them into their constitution. Indelibly etched on to the Kennedy Memorial are words that are as relevant today as they were 800 years ago, and ones we now find ourselves fighting for all over again. “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend or oppose any foe in order to assure the survival and success of liberty.” | It is no coincidence that, a short stroll up the hill from the Magna Carta commemoration in Runnymede, sits another mark to history – the Kennedy Memorial. When the early colonists arrived in America, they brought with them the principles of the Magna Carta, and enshrined them into their constitution. Indelibly etched on to the Kennedy Memorial are words that are as relevant today as they were 800 years ago, and ones we now find ourselves fighting for all over again. “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend or oppose any foe in order to assure the survival and success of liberty.” |
| Liberty – it was something worth fighting for 800 years ago, it was something worth fighting for in 1945, and we must fight for it now. | Liberty – it was something worth fighting for 800 years ago, it was something worth fighting for in 1945, and we must fight for it now. |
| 9.57am BST09:57 | 9.57am BST09:57 |
| Artist Hew Locke gives the Duke of Cambridge an animated tour of his piece the Jurors. It consists of 12 bronze chairs placed in a circle around an invisible table – a direct reference to Clause 39 of Magna Carta, which states that no man can be imprisoned “except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land”. | Artist Hew Locke gives the Duke of Cambridge an animated tour of his piece the Jurors. It consists of 12 bronze chairs placed in a circle around an invisible table – a direct reference to Clause 39 of Magna Carta, which states that no man can be imprisoned “except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land”. |
| Prince William tries to look interested. | Prince William tries to look interested. |
| 9.41am BST09:41 | 9.41am BST09:41 |
| Opening summary | Opening summary |
| Welcome to live coverage of celebrations to mark the 800th anniversary of sealing of Magna Carta. | Welcome to live coverage of celebrations to mark the 800th anniversary of sealing of Magna Carta. |
| Thousands of people are lining the banks of the Thames at Runnymede, near Windsor, for an elaborate commemoration of a document which is regarded as the foundation of parliamentary democracy, human rights and the supremacy of the law over the crown. | Thousands of people are lining the banks of the Thames at Runnymede, near Windsor, for an elaborate commemoration of a document which is regarded as the foundation of parliamentary democracy, human rights and the supremacy of the law over the crown. |
| The Magna Carta may have marked the limits of monarchical power and privilege, but there is due to be plenty of royal pomp on show. | The Magna Carta may have marked the limits of monarchical power and privilege, but there is due to be plenty of royal pomp on show. |
| The Queen, the patron of the Magna Carta Trust, will be joined by other senior members of the royal family, including the Duke of Cambridge. Parliamentarians will led by prime minister David Cameron. | The Queen, the patron of the Magna Carta Trust, will be joined by other senior members of the royal family, including the Duke of Cambridge. Parliamentarians will led by prime minister David Cameron. |
| There will also be a rededication of the American Bar Association’s Magna Carta Memorial and the unveiling of a new art installation commissioned for the anniversary. | There will also be a rededication of the American Bar Association’s Magna Carta Memorial and the unveiling of a new art installation commissioned for the anniversary. |
| Artist Hew Locke was commissioned by the National Trust and Surrey County Council to produce a permanent public artwork on the Runnymede meadow where the document was sealed. | Artist Hew Locke was commissioned by the National Trust and Surrey County Council to produce a permanent public artwork on the Runnymede meadow where the document was sealed. |
| Meanwhile, a Magna Carta replica is being carried down the Thames on the Royal Barge Gloriana accompanied by a flotilla of 200 boats. | Meanwhile, a Magna Carta replica is being carried down the Thames on the Royal Barge Gloriana accompanied by a flotilla of 200 boats. |