Tom Griffin (London, OK):With the Counter Terrorism Bill due to resume its passage though Parliament this week, Amnesty has launched a new petition against the provision to extend detention without charge to 42 days. The petition will be presented to Parliament if the legislation returns to the Commons, with individual MPs also being presented with signatures from their own constituents.
Such opposition may yet help to force a Government U-turn in the wake of the Lords defeat predicted by today's Times:
Gordon Brown is preparing for a humiliating climbdown over his proposal to hold terrorist suspects for 42 days after being told that it will be defeated in the House of Lords.
Ministers admit privately that there is not “a cat in Hell’s chance” of the legislation, which returns to the Lords this week, being passed into law.
The Government has decided against using the Parliament Act to force the measure through after peers reject it, The Times has learnt. That decision will effectively confine the controversial proposal — which the Prime Minister fought tooth and nail to get through a Commons vote in June — to the legislative dustbin.
The paper even features an article condemning the bill from former Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Andy Hayman, one of the original advocates of 90 day detention.
The day will come when the current threshold of 28 days will prove insufficient. But this Bill is not the answer. It replaces a legal process that has passed the test of time. The original police case for stronger powers of detention is unrecognisable. It is completely detached from the operational needs of the police. The Bill is about politics and it won't work.
This is a case for extended detention without the (admittedly unworkable) safeguards in the bill. It appears that his own role in the De Menezes case, the Forest Gate raid and the bugging of Sadiq Khan MP has not dented Hayman's confidence in the police's ability to use such powers wisely.
