Did this senior police office really say this? Surely it's a wind-up?
'We are now arguing for judicially supervised detention for as long as it takes. We need to go there [unlimited detention] and I think that politicians of all parties and the public have great faith in the judiciary to make sure that's used in the most proportionate way possible."
Ken Jones, the President of the Association of Chief Police Officers in England and Wales.
Shami Chakrabarti, the director of human rights group Liberty, said:
“We elect politicians to determine legislation and we expect chief constables to uphold the rule of law, not campaign for internment.”
Quite, Shami.
Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act 1974 - 2 days
The Terrorism Act 2000 - 7 days
The Criminal Justice Act 2003 - 14 days
The Criminal Justice Act 2006 - 28 days
Gordon Brown is now said to favour extending detention to 90 days.
Also seen at The Last Ditch
Laban Tall has a nice quote from Churchill's History of the English Speaking Peoples writing about the 1679 Parliament.
"This short-lived legislature left behind it a monument. It passed a Habeas Corpus Act which confirmed and strengthened the freedom of the individual against arbitrary arrest by the executive government. No Englishman, however great or however humble, could be imprisoned for more than a few days without grounds being shown against him in open court according to the settled law of the land. The descent into despotism which has engulfed so many leading nations in the present age has made the virtue of this enactment, sprung from English political genius, apparent even to the most thoughtless, the most ignorant, the most base."
|