House of Lords throw out 42 day detention without trial

[artichokes]

story here

According to Channel 4 news the Home Sec will make a statement in the COmmons tonight announcing the Gov are going to give-up on trying to get this power. So it looks like 42 day detention is dead.

Are we pleased?

Yes, very. I've never heard of a Government just dropping something the Lords voted against before. I suppose they've got enough on their plate at the moment.

The Gov do sometimes drop measures that the Lords have defeated but its very rarely high profile stuff like this. And it is never announced on the night of the defeat.

I suppose that Brown is riding high on his handling of the financial crisis right now. The last thing he needs is to re-open the story of him bullishly ignoring his own Party and experts on this measure. That did his reputation no good in the Spring and I suspect he is desperate to get this story to go away very quickly.

Its something to ponder though. If a PM is truly convinced that a measure is needed for national secutiry (as GB insisted this measure was) then to drop it out of fear for his own career is .

we are very pleased

Thank the Lord.

Sometimes, I love that old unelected house.

Thank God for that.

Yes, I was relieved to hear that, very very much so....

good.

Thank goodness that the H of L have some common sense.

am with artichokes, Brown dropped it because he no longer needs the hassle. It was all a publicity stunt in the first place and he's got plenty of other opportunities to look like a strong leader atm.

VERY glad 42 days has gone but the bill still contains other very serious clauses that would damage civil liberties - giving the home sec the power to force inquests to be held in secret, so anything embarrassing is hushed up (how many inquests into the death of servicemen and women will be reported if this goes ahead? Very few, I reckon).

How utterly depressing if you're right, Artichokes and Edam.

Look Edam they have given up on secret inquests too!

Hurrah! Blimey, while Gordon's off dealing with world economic meltdown, maybe we can get all the other 3,000 new 'crimes' the government has invented taken off the statute books?

Hooray!

We can thank Liberty and other campaigners for this. It is worth trying to make a difference.