Thursday, November 15, 2007

The 28 Day Dilemma

UCAS work has squeezed out posting over the past week, but I thought I'd put up a brief post here about the recent security malarkey, especially since the Question Time special - featuring both Lib Dem leadership candidates - is about to start, and the excitement might make me incapable of blogging later on.

The bare bones yesterday's bit of mis-speak by Lord West, one of Gordon Brown's security 'advisers', can be read here on the BBC site. This was in itself a farcical event, but what is fascinating about the whole debate about the detention time for security suspects is that it shows us just how little seems to have changed, despite a new prime minister. Gordon Brown is as prepared as his predecessor to risk his parliamentary majority in a vote on an issue that has been roundly criticised from all sides, for which he cannot produce compelling evidence, and which merely strengthens the view that we have a government determined to increase its central control. Alternatively, and just as worryingly, it is a government that seems consistently willing to do the bidding of its secretive security advisers, whoever holds the public posts. Further commentary, from Nick Robinson, is here.

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