Tony Blair's defeat in the House of Commons

9th November 2005

Tony Blair today suffered his first defeat as Prime Minister: the proposed law allowing police to detain terrorist suspects for 90 days without charge was rejected by the House of Commons.

Tony Blair's "trust me, I'm Tony" stance has effectively turned into "if you don't trust me, you support terrorists".

But to my mind the most rational political voices have been saying that the best way to combat terrorism is to create a fair society. Introducing the 90-day rights of police to detain suspects will add to the sense of unfairness and, in the long run, increase the likelihood of terrorism through greater disaffection with authority.

The Merits of the Police Request

Tony Blair and his Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, have repeatedly said that there is a compelling case for the 90-day detention of suspects.

Where is that compelling case?

As the son of a former policeman, one might expect me to be naturally inclined to support such police requests. However, despite my family ties, my personal experience has taught me to be distrustful. One of my sons was questioned under the terrorism legislation - we have a piece of paper to prove it. What was his crime? As far as we can ascertain, it was:

Borrowing his mum's car (with permission)
Going to church (in London) and parking his car where it was legal to do so
Going to the pub after church (and staying well within the law in regards to alcohol consumption, having a half pint)
Returning to the car to drive home afterwards

After these major crimes, he was treated aggressively and discourteously by the police officers who interrogated him for some time. At the end, one of them said:

"Well, we can't actually charge you with anything"

To which our son's reply was:

"That's because I haven't 'actually' done anything wrong"

He was then given a slip of paper, which they are obliged to give, that stated anti-terrorism law was the right under which they had interrogated our son.

To put this in perspective, our son didn't get arrested, and didn't go to jail, but it was an unsettling experience.

Creating a fair society

This incident demonstrates how the police are ready to use (abuse) anti-terrorism law. One wonders how differently it might have turned out if he had been muslim and guilty of some minor demeanour.

The police abuse of anti-terrorism law was also demonstrated at the labour conference, where a long-time supporter of the labour party was ejected and interviewed under anti-terrorism legislation because he shouted "nonsense" whilst Jack Straw was speaking.

On the other hand, the police have a very difficult job to do, and their protection is vital in maintaining an orderly society. However, in my view it will make their job even more difficult if we don't make them accountable - not with a view to blame, but with a view to monitoring their activities closely enough so that they are better able to walk the fine line between policing our society and creating resentment amongst law-abiding citizens.

BBC News:

"Scotland Yard has said it is "disappointed" at MPs' rejection of plans to hold terror suspects without charge for up to 90 days..."