Before and after
- 14 Nov 07, 11:25 AM
Uncertain, racked by doubts, yet to be convinced? You need half an hour with Gordon. Results guaranteed… or your money back.
Don't believe me? Just listen to the personal testimony of Lord West before and after Gordon.
This is what the Terror GOAT (Government of All the Talents) had to say about the case for extending detention for terror suspects beyond 28 days on the Today programme this morning:
"I still need to be fully convinced that we absolutely need more than 28 days and I also need to be convinced what is the best way of doing that."
And this is what he had to say after a chat with Gordon:
"I am quite clear that the greater complexities of terrorist plots will mean that we will need the power to detain certain individuals for more than 28 days... I am convinced that we need to legislate now so that we have the necessary powers when we need them. The government would be failing in its responsibility to protect national security if we waited until we needed more than 28 days to act."
Miraculous, I think you'll agree.
It worked on John Denham too, who as chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee argued that "Any new legislation should not propose longer than 28 days detention unless the evidence is compelling" but as a member of Gordon's Cabinet now argues… (You're way ahead of me).
Update: I'm sorry. It's all perfectly clear now after a briefing by the prime minister's spokesman. "Lord West has made his position quite clear, the words speak for themselves", journalists were told. Yes, but which words?
Ah, they'd thought of that. Asked if Lord West had made the statement of his own volition, the reply came '"he thought it was necessary to make sure that his position was properly understood. I'm not sure that he has changed his mind. I will let Lord West and his most recent statements speak for themselves."
So that's cleared that up.
Update 2: Lord West has taken another opportunity to clarify his position (or should that be positions):
"Well I haven't changed my position, I think being a simple sailor, not a politician, maybe I didn't chose my words well. What I think we do need to do is to prove to the British people with the evidence that this is the case, as I say I'm convinced that that is the case. We need to show that... maybe my choice of words wasn't particularly clever."
This wasn't enough to silence David Cameron, who in the Commons statement on terror asked the prime minister to explain Lord West's apparent change of mind. The Tory leader suggested that people would believe Admiral West was "leant on" and accused the government of being "not so much concerned with the evidence as with the politics".
Gordon Brown pointed out that in the past Lord West has clearly said there would be occasions when we need more than 28 days. Speaking on the 16th July on Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Radio 4's Today programme, he said:
''Looking at the complexity of this, there will be occasions when we need more than 28 days. How we exactly do that is something that I hope we can come to some sort of consensus on.'' He went on to say, however, that there were "great attractions" in Lord Carlile's proposal for specific time limits to be scrapped altogether in favour of senior judges using their discretion in each case. "I tend towards not wanting to see Parliament setting exactly a longer limit" he said.
Trying to be fair to the "simple sailor" (who was, let's recall, the former First Sealord), I think what he was reflecting this morning is the hope that the government can find a way beyond simply extending the 28 day limit to allow a tiny number of terror suspects to be detained for longer if necessary.
