42 Days Detention Petition
Plenty of people have already made clear that they’re not a fan of detaining people for six weeks without sufficient evidence to charge them, some examples:
- Sir Ken Macdonald, the director of public prosecutions
- Lord Lyell and The Lords constitution committee
- Lord Goldsmith, former Attorney General
- The joint select committee on human rights (whose chairman said the extension ‘would almost certainly not be lawful’)
- Lady Manningham-Buller, former head of MI5
- Davis Davis MP, who resigned from the Commons, triggering a by-election from which the government fled
- The Conservative Party, the Liberal Democrat Party and thirty-six Labour Rebels
I think that the majority of people, if they thought about it, would agree with what those people have to say. I do not think that the arguments raised in favour of the proposal, which remain extremely vague, limited perhaps to ‘doing the right thing’ and ‘getting the baddies’, can justify the erosion in liberty the move represents. On the contrary, I think the move risks making it more difficult to convict genuine terrorists.
Sir Ken McDonald suggests there is no need for the measure at all: ‘For our part as prosecutors, we don’t perceive any need for the period of 28 days to be increased. Our experience has been that we have managed comfortably within 28 days.’ I was asked yesterday what the problem was if it wasn’t going to be used. The problem is that the government of today may not make much use of an extended period of detention, but that liberty will have already been given away. Given the never-ending nature of fighting a war against a tactic (terrorism), there is little reason to think of this as a temporary measure. If you take the argument further, and believe the move will incite extremism, then it can be seen as completely counter-productive.
I do not think the Bill will survive the House of Lords. When the Lords reject it, Labour will paint the picture once again of the unelected aristocracy getting in the way of what the public wants. They will try to use the Parliament Act to force the Bill on to the statute book.
I do not think it is what the public wants. It is not what I want, which is why I have signed this Amnesty International Petition. I have also spoken to my MP. If you feel the same way, why not write to yours?
