Tomorrow the British Government will publish its Counter-Terrorism Bill. Ministers are already trying to persuade MPs that a key component of the Bill – the increase in pre-charge detention from 28 days up to 42 days – is crucial. According to today’s Mirror and Evening Standard, Tony McNulty, Minister for Security, Counter-terrorism, Crime and Policing is, in a bid to gain support for the Bill stressing to MPs that, ‘two or three 9/11s’ or ‘two 7/7s’ could happen.
We know there is a real threat to the UK from terrorism. But as Alex pointed out at the week-end, the key battle in counter-terrorism is about narrative, influence, and who gets to frame the debate in people’s minds. McNulty doesn’t seem to have taken this on board – even though last year he readily admitted that the Government had made mistakes in its approach.
In a speech at a Labour Party conference fringe event, he suggested that the Government was ‘coming round to the view that says, actually, the rules of the game haven’t changed’ – a reference to Tony Blair’s approach after the terrorist attacks on the London network in 2005. Furthermore, he continued:
- The more these things are tackled through normality, with some little exceptions on top, rather than absolutely by exception, the better.
- The more any response is rooted in our civil liberties and human rights, with whatever slight tweaks at the top, the better.
- Lessons had been learned from last summer’s botched terror raids in London by not rushing headlong into looking at legislation instantly and with very short shrift, but instead by taking the time to develop a broader counter-terrorism response by government in all its facets.
Some reforms are clearly needed. Some aspects of the Bill may even have the support of the human rights organisation, Liberty. But by leading with the threat, the Government is likely to increase opposition to the Bill – and with it the likelihood of a damaging defeat for the Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
