Beware of Blair's Fervour
09 Nov 2005
Evening Standard If you are one of Tony Blair's "poor bloody infantry" - a Labour backbencher - there is nothing scarier than him with the shining light of certainty in his eyes. And over the past 48 hours, trying to save his Terrorism Bill, this is the guise he has presented to hapless Labour MPs.
He makes no effort to deal with the counter-arguments. Instead, he juts out his chin, squares his shoulders, adopts that air of boyish fervour and proclaims firmly that "this is a test".
And you are left in no doubt as to what he thinks the vote is a test of - each Labour MP's loyalty to him.
As the Prime Minister applies soaring rhetoric to the cause of banging up our fellow citizen for 90 days without trial, you realise with a sinking feeling that he really is supremely indifferent to the "detail". In particular, the tiny "detail" of the effect on our Muslim communities of young men being interned and then, quite possibly, released back into their communities with no case to answer but transformed into martyrs. Or even the "detail" that internment in Northern Ireland was the best recruiting sergeant the IRA ever had.
The one argument that has been deployed is the police card. The police, we are told, have demanded 90 days - and as far as Blair is concerned, that is that. Apparently chief constables have been contacting recalcitrant Labour MPs to urge them to vote for the Bill. If this is true, it is an extraordinary abuse of constitutional norms. The police are entitled to offer advice on criminal-justice matters. But responsible politicians cannot simply subcontract policymaking to them.
I will be voting against detaining people for 90 days without charge because, like a number of judges, I believe it will be struck down under the European Convention on Human Rights. Nor do I think it is a nonnegotiable police demand; I think Blair went trawling for "eye-catching" initiatives and the police came up with this. It is young black and Asian men - the sons and brothers of my friends, family and community - who risk being swept up by this new form of internment. There will be miscarriages of justice. But, above all, I am certain that the disaffection this policy will cause in the Muslim community will make us all less safe.
And, like the rest of my colleagues, I remember the last time Blair appealed to us with his voice throbbing with emotion. We are all too familiar with the arguments that he has seen security briefings too secret for MPs.We can almost mouth his appeals for loyalty word for word. And the last time Labour MPs rallied to him, despite their deepest misgivings, he took us into the Iraq war. Perhaps Tory MPs will prove susceptible to his rhetoric. With reluctance, I would vote for 28 days detention - but not for 90.
That is a measure that should have no place in a liberal democracy.
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