Unreal. On this morning’s Today programme, Security minister Lord West said:
I want to have absolute evidence that we actually need longer than 28 days. I want to be totally convinced because I am not going to go and push for something that actually affects the liberty of the individual unless there is a real necessity for it… I still need to be fully convinced that we absolutely need more than 28 days and I also need to be convinced what is the best way of doing that.
And then just a couple of hours later, the Home Office releases a statement from him which says:
I am quite clear that the greater complexities of terrorist plots will mean that we will need the power to detain certain individuals for more than 28 days. Already six individuals have been held over 27 days and the number of plots, and their growing international nature, will only make them more complex to investigate. I was stating this morning that there will need to be scrutiny in the system, and robust evidence against individuals, to safeguard their rights. I am convinced that we need to legislate now so that we have the necessary powers when we need them.
It’s a tough climbdown for Lord West to have to have made, but an incredibly useful development for opponents of the move to extend how long police can hold suspects without trial. Lord West’s comments follow the publication earlier this week of a report commissioned by Liberty, which says that extending the maximum period of internment (let’s call a spade a spade, shall we?) to 56 days would make Britain’s the longest such period of any democracy.
I don’t follow civil liberties issues as much as I should, but I do think that the Government has really not made an effective case for increasing the period of detention before charge of terrorist suspects. As stories like the one I discussed last week show, the supposed cure can all too easily increase the very sense of grievance that causes the illness in the first place. But more than that, I was astonished to read earlier this week that back in 2005, George Churchill-Coleman of all people had said:
I have a horrible feeling that we are sinking into a police state, and that’s not good for anybody. We live in a democracy and we should police on those standards… I have serious worries and concerns about these ideas on both ethical and practical terms. You cannot lock people up just because someone says they are terrorists. Internment didn’t work in Northern Ireland, it won’t work now. You need evidence.
When the former head of counter-terrorism at Scotland Yard says that kind of thing, it’s really time to worry…
