42 day detention blocked

The financial crisis has kept this issue of the front pages, but yesterday the Lords rejected the government’s plans to extend detention without trial by 50% for terrorist suspects. This shows that Lords can exercise real power, but it also raises questions about the will of an unelected part of the legislature.

It is also a controversial issue from the perspective of individual versus collective freedoms. This is the currant bun’s reaction.

OPPONENTS of 42 days’ detention will be smug today — but they should be ashamed.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith had no choice but to prepare an emergency Bill for the aftermath of an atrocity.

It is scandalous that the Tories have put us in this position. Police will effectively have to wait until dozens die before they are allowed to hold suspects for as long as they need.

Opponents ignored some of the best-informed experts and clung to their bizarre civil rights prejudice.

Lord Carlile, the independent reviewer of terrorism laws, should have been heeded. So should Lord Tebbit, an IRA bomb victim.

These men know what they are talking about from bitter experience. They rightly pointed out that al-Qaeda will be taking great comfort from the failure of Parliament.

If 28 days’s detention without charge was good enough for the Tories, why wasn’t 14 more days?

Particularly when the law is only likely to affect four or five terror suspects in the next FIVE YEARS.

The great shame is we must wait for al-Qaeda to score a direct hit before we take action. What a sorry state of affairs.