round two
Sunday, June 3, 2007 at 11:00AM Blair continues to show that he still gets it and outlines the issues that faced the government after implementing a Human Rights Act in a PRE 9/11 world and realising there is no such thing as absolute civil liberty.
Within the next few weeks we will publish new proposals on anti-terror laws. Our aim is to reach a consensus across the main political parties. But at the heart of these new proposals will lie the same debate: the balance between protecting the safety of the public and the rights of the individual suspected of being involved with terrorism
A departing message that sets up Brown who appears to be not such a soft follow on as I thought. How this is managed, or rather who railroads it, will help determine my vote in the next election.
The Chancellor believes it is possible to win support for increasing the 28-day limit if there is stronger judicial oversight. Brown believes there is a need to extend detention because of the volume of international evidence which accrues in such investigations, most of which can be difficult to obtain from computers. And more importantly he schedules in a discussion on evidence which if the 28 day extension fails, is a major issue on the agenda.
Brown's decision to call for a Privy Council review on the use of telephone-tap evidence shows the Chancellor believes the traditional balancing act - whether it is right to produce in court irrefutable evidence of a terrorist conspiracy when that might expose other intelligence sources - has now come down in favour of presenting the evidence.
The success of one of these might cancel out the need for the other, which is why Im very happy to see them both on the agenda in what appears to be a more carefully thought through set of proposals.
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Reader Comments (5)
Alison,
Yes, it is very interesting to see how this plays out. I have always agreed with you that Blair mostly gets it on the WOT, and if Brown can follow up that will be good. But the Labour Party itself, like the Tories, do NOT get it, the MSM does not get it, so how will things develop? Mmmm...
Interesting to read what Brown said about getting his party's left wingers into line and about Hain. Even more interesting to see if the Tories side with Labours hard left as usual.
Bet they will. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, there is only one thing in the world worse than being a Labour politician, and that is being a Conservative one!!
I think Mr Brown mightjust be the person we are all looking for. No pussyfooting around with hoodies wow. Careful David Cameron you are looking very shaky at the moment.
Could ONE senior British politician of any main party please make a stand for liberal secularism in the face of multicultural political claptrap?
This would mean condemning the islamists for their open hatred of jews, women and democracy, as well as their covert or open espousal of jihad and suicide bombers.
No, I thought not.