Any precedent of this ever happening before? An example of legal warfare or "lawfare", surely, messing around with the public's right to know, creating dark lacunae. Government says "if you've got nothing to hide, you've got nothing to fear". If they've got nothing to hide, why the secrecy? UK appears firmly wedged in the US armpit. The last bastion in this sort of case is the judiciary. But when you see that even your sovereign judiciary is compromised, cowed and coy - as in this instance - a red light flashes. Unless judiciary is shamed, exposed, called out to higher standards - this will continue. The Assange case boils down to a test of sovereignty. If Assange is extradited, UK will demonstrate it's fully lost its sovereignty and the cowardly, silent Australian government will have, too.