So now we’re in a breakout group on how democracies should fight terrorism. Quite a panel they’ve assembled: Shami Chakrabarti from Liberty, David Omand who used to be Security and Intelligence Co-ordinator at the Cabinet Office, author of The Islamist Ed Hussein, Sadiq Khan MP and Home Office minister Tony McNulty.
And there’s a fight! Shami Chakrabarti and Ed Hussein, whom we all assumed would make nice, are kicking the crap out of each other! Ed Hussein throws the first punch by saying that he feels Shami is patronising him – and that she’s a “liberal do-gooder”. Shami not happy about this. She starts by taking the moral high ground, talking about respect and open debate. But then she relents – and tells Ed that “it’ll be a long time before I start taking lessons in democracy from someone whose acquaintance with it is so recent”. And as one, we all go “oooOOOooo”…
