Tom Griffin (London, OK): As OK noted last month, the extension of detention without trial to 42 days is not the only worrying measure in the Counter-Terrorism Bill which is currently making it's way through the Lords. Today's Times suggests there is mounting opposition to the drastic restrictions on inquests under the proposed legislation.
Lawyers, opposition MPs and pressure groups have told The Times that the move represents a fundamental breach of the right to a public inquiry into a death – a centuries-old mainstay of British justice.
They said that a full-scale campaign is being prepared to block the provision, which granted the Home Secretary unprecedented powers to intervene in the workings of the judiciary.
Critics include the Conservative and Liberal Democrat front-benches, as well as some in the Labour Party such as Andrew Dismore MP, the chair of Parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights, a body whose increasing prominence Andrew Blick highlighted earlier today.
There are the beginnings here of a coalition like the one which many hope will throw out 42 days. If there is a weak link, it could be the Tories, given the relatively lukewarm tone of Dominic Grieve's reported comments:
Dominic Grieve, the Shadow Home Secretary, said that the Conservative Party would redouble its efforts to amend the Bill in the Lords. “The Government has so far failed to make the case for handing it the power to appoint the coroner, disband the jury and hold inquests in secret,” he said.
The Times' leading article suggests one reason why the Tories should stand firm, the impact on inquests into the death of British service personnel:
Is it not conceivable that, had such powers been available at the time, the Government might have considered sparing itself the public embarrassment of February's inquest into the death of Captain James Philippson, at which its failure to supply him with basic equipment in Afghanistan in 2006 was condemned as “unforgivable and inexcusable”? The assistant coroner in Oxford conducting the case added that such failure constituted a breach of trust by the Ministry of Defence.
