Jacqui Smith has just started speaking in favour of extending the detention without trial period to 42 days. If you’re interested she is wearing a smart brown suit that looks a little tight around the chest and using a very fancy biro to make notes as she speaks. We have already heard how the new threat is worse and more ferocious than before. She keeps talking about new challenges and darkly hints about the new ‘responses’ that are needed. It is all mood music to set us up for the argument that we need to allow the police to detain suspects for 42 days without trail.
The flaw in the argument is that its all a bit similar to everything we have heard before. We were told that unless there was an upper limit of 90 days the sky would fall down. MPs blocked 90 days, yet our streets have not been deluged with terrorists who the police could only hold for 28 days. The debate around our response to terrorism relies on striking a balance between preserving our liberty and making it as hard as possible for terrorists to carry out attacks. This risk is the price we pay for freedom. The price has a long way to go before it becomes too high.
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