Our freedom is at stake

Blair threatens us all with his determination to restrict the rights of terrorist suspects

By Chris Huhne

"In Britain, we have a tradition of fighting for our freedoms. When the threat is foreign, and the battle clearcut, there has been no greater rallying cry. Yet we now face a more insidious threat to our liberties. We have a government that argues our freedoms have to be given up for our security.

"Each change that ministers propose is presented as a small step that only unreasonable people could find objectionable. Each concession is presented not as a diminution of freedom, but with Orwellian doublethink as freedom from a greater threat. Thus ministers argued that the ability to lock up people without charge or trial was an essential guarantee of the freedom not to be blown up.

"Slice by tiny slice, we are waking up in a society where our traditional freedoms are draining away. Surveillance and the Big Brother state are new realities.

"We have already agreed that terrorist suspects can be held without charge or trial for 14 days. That is broadly in line with other countries that face a similar threat from terrorism, such as Australia, Germany and France. But it is not enough for Tony Blair. What the police ask for, he has said, he is happy to give.

"We will vote again today on Blair's suggestion of 90 days' detention, an interminable period for a person to be imprisoned without knowing the charges they face. The reason the Commons previously compromised with 28 days is because the Tories sound an uncertain trumpet on liberties. They fight with Labour for the support of authoritarian parts of our society. Those who care primarily for an ordered society are never too fussy who is hurt in the process, until their freedoms are at risk.

"Yet these compromises have become corrosive. All the safeguards that have for centuries helped to secure the rule of law have been attacked as impediments to the fight against terrorism and crime. It is time to restate some ancient truths. We have always believed that it is better that the guilty should go free than that the innocent should be punished. Furthermore, anyone accused of a crime has the right to be judged by their fellow citizens on a jury. And no one should be detained for more than a very short period without being charged.

"Even in wartime, we were much more careful of civil liberties. In 1940, when invasion threatened, we introduced Regulation 18B, allowing the government to detain anyone whom it believed to be a danger to the national interest. But those detained could appeal to the courts, and they were released in 1943 when the immediate danger of invasion was over ..."
Guardian Unlimited

Chris Huhne MP is a candidate for the UK Liberal Democrat leadership.

Tagged: blair, uk, police+state, liberty, civil+rights, war+on+terror