“Yet another one sided argument for the re-housing of the Magna Carta. Nice to see the usual trend of hijacking of "celebrities" to champion issues that they have little or no real interest in and may probably never seen! It is very sad to see the Lincoln Echo being bias to this side of this story, again! I thought the press was supposed to be ¿free¿ but it looks like the usual driving force of this project is the generation of profit, but at what cost? Is the Echo really concerned about Lincolns¿ heritage (see comment below) or will they receive some other kind of benefit from their support of this issue.

Lincolns¿ Living History

The Magna Carta is well renowned for being the basis of British Law. Only three of the original clauses in Magna Carta are still law, with this third clause is being the most famous: ¿No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, nor will we proceed with force against him, except by the lawful judgement of his equals or by the law of the land. To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice¿. And you can still see this clause in action at Lincoln Crown Court today.

Lincoln Crown Court is owned by the Ministry of Justice and is just as much part of Lincoln¿s History as the Magna Carta. The old medieval hall of Lincoln Castle became a court room early in the 18th century, replaced in 1776 by the first courthouse. When this subsided, the present Gothic Crown Court building you see today was built in 1826 and is still one of the best preserved Victorian court rooms in the country. I believe the court is the 2nd oldest working crown court in England (the 1st being in York), is very much a part of Lincoln¿s living history and we should be proud to have such a piece of working heritage that is freely open to the public.

What would be the consequences of moving the Magna Carta? We know it wouldn¿t be cheap to re-house the court and in these times can we really afford to spend vast amounts of public funds? It would certainly result in increased admittance fees into the castle. Did you know you can already visit the Crown Court for free if you just ask for a Court Pass at the gate? How much room do you need to display the Magna Carta? Would the rest of the building be turned into a re-creation of what we already have, with actors carrying out court re-enactments (have you ever been to York Dungeons!)

Don¿t get me wrong I think the Magna Carta is a very important and precious part of our history, but don¿t let our living heritage become a dead museum!”

“Just to let people know the Conservative ruling body at the City of Lincoln Council has no intentions of bringing back the Tourist Information Centre in the city centre of Lincoln. Their decision was made due to cuts in public expenditure and to save public money. The excuse that there is no money in the kitty and if anyone one wishes to bring back the TIC it will have to be done by private enterprise.
No vision to promote Lincoln except the Christmas Market.
This has been the same with our forefathers who have run city council.
What a joke and decision making has become a farce just like a Carry On film - carrying on regardless!”

“This is potentially the biggest thing to happen to Lincoln for years. It needs to be done correctly, otherwise we are going to be embarrassingly under-prepared for the influx of tourists. If this is to go ahead, we WILL need two tourist information centers, and one's that are open all day, the promotion of the city is to be enhanced to a Worldwide scale, we all know about The Statue of Liberty, do Americans know about Lincoln at all? The potential for the hotels in our city is astronomically huge, aswell as all the other attractions we have on our doorstep, which need to be pushed to the moon if this goes through! Celebrity endoresments are one thing, making it happen is an entirely different matter.”

“It is about time that those looking after the interests of City of Lincoln act upon what has been suggested about Magna Carta. For they have been given so many opportunities, for example, creating a Roman Centre, but nothing ever materialised.
What's the bet that Lincoln has to wait a long time again before anything gets done.
By that time, all will be forgotten as to what happened with the Roman Centre for Lincoln, on par with the Viking Centre at York and Tales of Robin Hood at Nottingham.”

“This is why we elected Karl to be our MP. Fighting for Lincoln and not just agreeing with those in Westminster. What a refreshing change from the last MP. Miss roll over and tickle my tummy, career chasing, Westminster loving, sell out! Good luck to you Karl and keep up the good work.”

“I am ashamed to say that it was only last year that I stood looking at the Magna Carta, and it was a humbling experience.

It is right that a lot more should be made of this important document.

Not only that, so many important events originated in this side of the country. The pilgrim fathers, the founding fathers, the Cromwell family. Perhaps space could be given to have exhibitions celebrating these important areas of our history and the history of the USA, bringing in even more revenues.

My friends from the USA all want to see London and Stratford-on-Avon when they visit the UK. I think Lincoln and York is a much better combination.”