Labour: if at first you don’t succeed, lie to the public
Dear Tony McNulty,
As a Home Office minister I can imagine that you are pretty nervous right now. The vote at 6pm tonight on 42-day detention is going to be very close and I think everyone from all political parties knows that the ramifications of this vote go way beyond the confines of a simple Commons defeat for Gordon Brown. I am therefore not surprised that your tactics to try and win the vote have turned dirty.
Let’s quickly recap on a few things. MI5 do not want this legislation. The Director of Public Prosecutions doesn’t want it. The former attorney general doesn’t want it. The joint committee on Human Rights doesn’t want it. The Conservatives and Lib Dems don’t want it. Interestingly, though, the public do want this legislation with 69% in favour and 24% against. It seems as though Gordon Brown’s scaremongering might just have worked. Not only that, the lies that have been peddled by the government and police also seem to have made an impact. For example, ministers and police chiefs recently cited a plot in 2006 to bomb airliners as proof that longer detention is needed, claiming officers investigating the case came close to releasing the suspects because of the 28-day limit. Sadly for them, Liberty (the human rights group) last night said the evidence used to charge the suspects was obtained by police within 4 and 12 days of their arrests. Well, well, well. Is that more spin from the government? Do you lot have any shame? Even on an issue as fundamentally important to our society as civil liberties, you distort the truth to gain public support.
And as if that wasn’t bad enough, the quality of the legislation – irrespective of the length of detention being suggested – is appalling. The role of Parliament in 42-day detentions is still nothing more than a token gesture as MP’s would be asked to judge whether someone should continue to be held WITHOUT SEEING THE EVIDENCE AGAINST THEM. In addition, a senior judge must ‘review the detention’, but only to assess whether the police are showing due diligence and expediency in the investigation, but THE JUDGE IS NOT GOING TO EVALUATE WHETHER THERE ARE REASONABLE GROUNDS TO CONTINUE THE DETENTION.
If the government went in front of the voters with a clear, concise and evidence-based proposal for helping to tackle terrorism both here and abroad, I would be the first person to take a seat and listen. It is therefore a great shame to me and a terrible shame for civil liberties that this legislation is confusing, lacking in evidence, lacking in support and wholly abitrary in places. I hope you lose the vote tonight, I really do.
Yours sincerely,
A.Tory
Witanagemot Blogs
“…this legislation is confusing, lacking in evidence, lacking in support and wholly abitrary in places.”
Pretty much like all recent Labour policies then…?
Seems only too fitting that it might be the staw that broke the camel’s back. If the opposition hold their nerve and vote ‘No’, that is.
We also need the DUP to hold their nerve, as despite having just a handful of seats their net effect on the outcome could be massive. The Labour rebels also need to be resolute.
Who’s going to let Gordon Brown know that ConservativeHome is not the “Conservative Party Members’ Website”? Apparently, according to Brown, you don’t just need to present a unified Party, but also refuse to allow supporter’s blogs to disagree with you. How childish.
I suppose, he is used to Labourhome worshipping at his alter and supporting his lies…
I regard those “Tories” such as Ann Widdecombe and Tim Montgomerie, who have fallen for Brown’s bait, as scum and morons of the worst imaginable kind. I wonder how thick they have to be to allow Gordon F***ing Brown to extend state power, massively, with no valid basis whatsoever. Do they really not understand, after 11 years, that it’s dangerous to give the government such control?
I’ve tried having the argument over ID cards: people just haven’t thought, at all. I’m thinking about my neighbours, the kind of total shyte they’d come out with in defence of this policy. This is like something out of the USA, a rubbish government that harms the people pulling the “security” trump card, expecting us all to shut up, fly the flag & vote for them again.
I wish to congratulate & thank those Tories who opposed this utter filth. More need to stand up & say that ToryHome is a disgrace.
37 Labour rebels. A bill only passed by bribing the DUP. Majority of 9.
I think what authority Gordon Brown had just went out the window. When this gets kicked back by the Lords, the situation will only get worse for Gordo.
asquith, actually I think there is a decent case to be made for both sides on this legislation. A lot of strong feeling, but that’s just the background. In the end, there are very good arguments on both sides, and the only question is where you draw the line between safety and liberty.
I don’t think ToryHome is a disgrace at all – surely they’re entitled to make their own arguments and decisions. By attacking them the way you are, you’re refusing them the very rights and freedoms you’re claiming to stand up for. The disgrace was Gordon Brown attempting to quote from a blog and claim that this somehow constituted an defendable argument against David Cameron. Ridiculous.
It shows that the Tories are very far from being solidly behind civil liberties. It isn’t so long ago that they supported the invasion of Iraq, the ID card scheme and what have you… instead of opposing things which were bad for this country, their only complaint being that the government wasn’t being aggressive enough & wasn’t doing enough to turn this country into America.
The Tories have not purged themselves of Mail-reading knuckledraggers. Only the Lib Dems have defended liberty thoroughly.
ConHome are perfectly entitled to their opinion, but to publish their support for 42-day detention the day before the vote was a bad misjudgement which Brown had every right to use (although he clearly doesn’t understand that ConHome is entirely independent).
Yesterday was a very sad day for liberty, and shame on the DUP for pandering to the government. According to the Conservatives, the DUP were bribed with up to £1bn in extra money for Northern Ireland from the sale of army bases, up to £200m by relaxing Treasury rules on new water charges in Northern Ireland and a government commitment that abortion laws in Great Britain would not be extended to Northern Ireland.
Apparently, liberty has a price tag.