Tony Blair, the lame duck has failed in his attempts to bully parliament into imprisoning those they answer to (Her Majesty’s subjects) for the equivalent of a six month sentence on no evidence.

As Ken says, Labour have their “consensus”, MPs have agreed with decent people and, surprisingly, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown and Shami Chakrabarti, who know that to imprison people without trial, evidence or even anything more concrete than a hunch, is not only wrong, but an imposition on a free people.

The terrorist attacks in London would not have been prevented by this law. Nor would any of the other ill-thought-out counter-terrorism laws that this government has been attempting to ’seek consensus’ over. Stopping people from heckling in a conference makes it clear that the police cannot, and should not, be trusted with draconian powers. These powers will not only be used against those who would seek to murder. It will also be used against innocent young Muslims and non-Muslims at the whim of a judge (who, if typical, will be woefully out of touch as is evidenced by the inconsistency of sentences passed down under the maximum allowed) and a police force not accustomed to such power.

I hope no such extension to the period that people can be held before being charged is ever introduced and I hope that, despite this, Blair stays on as PM. Blair may be the worst Prime Minister in my lifetime, but that doesn’t compare to the damage that Gordon Brown would do to the British economy given this much time before the next general election.


Posted In: Political, Conservative, News and Politics, Tory, Tory Leadership, Labour