Lords defeat 42 day detention plans

The government's plans to extend terror detention limits to 42 days have been heavily defeated in the House of Lords.

Peers voted to keep the current 28-day limit on pre-charge detentions by 309 votes to 118 - a majority of 191.

The controversial plan passed through the Commons by only nine votes in June. The government is to make a statement at 2030 BST in the Commons.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7666022.stm


Looks like David Davis will be vindicated.

Just waiting for the day the Tories dump that Bullingdon tosser Cameron and put the Magna Carta/Habeus Corpus chap in instead.

Plenty of other people have worked against it.

The Skin

But let us note that in most respects Davis is MUCH worse than Cameron. Let us instead wait for the day when Labour moves to the Left, and the Tories don't get in after all!

I hope the sordid truth about Viscount Astor's stepson-in-law soon comes out and Cameron goes to jail for a very long time.

Ditto his brother Alexander Cameron QC who defended both Jefrey Archer and Jonathan Aitken in their much publicised court cases which both ended in custodial sentences for lying.

Davis is on the right of the Tory party on most issues. He was one of the last diehard defendors of Clause 28, and has generally opposed most measures for equal rights for gays; is a strong supporter of the death penalty; strongly supported the invasion of Iraq; and was one of the biggest players of the anti-immigrant card in the 2005 election. He is also anti-abortion and generally socially conservative, and his libertarian views on 42 days don't extend to most other issues - as Shadow Home Secretary he was all in favour of 'prison works', 'zero tolerance policing', the drug war, and other RW law-and-order mantras.

Not someone whom leftists and liberals should be supporting, on the basis of a single issue.


'Ditto his brother Alexander Cameron QC who defended both Jefrey Archer and Jonathan Aitken in their much publicised court cases which both ended in custodial sentences for lying.'

I don't see the point here - surely it's a lawyer's job to defend any client who seeks his services, so long as he doesn't himself commit perjury or another crime in the process. Are you implying that A. Cameron did commit an actual crime, or is this just guilt by association?

I'd say he's more centre-right than diehard Tory blue.

I admire him for his utter condemnation of the charade that became the Thatcher years and his unequivocal disgust at Thatcher & John Major's collusion to wipe the slate clean viz Tory/Labour collusion in dealing with Robert Maxwell RIP.

I've known Davis for some 30 years and support his stand on the role of NATO, reform of the UN and civil rights issues in the UK as defined by Habeus Corpus and Magna Carta.

As for Alexander Cameron QC he was a Thatcher hand-picked stooge who plea bargained his way out of Aitken and Archer's far more serious prosecution charges that ended up in them being let off on a watered down version of their criminality.

At one stage Jonathan Aitken stood to be charged for arranging those illicit whopping great big backhanders to Prince Bandar in the Al Yammamah oil-for-bribes deal. He was also involved in covering up a sex ring directly connected to Robert Maxwell. His vow to publicly name names would have destroyed Tory and New Labour top dogs in their tracks.

Counterpunch somehow managed to scratch the surface of this gagged scandal with its January 2003 story:

Blackout in Britain
Alleged Pedophiles Helm Blair's War Room
http://www.counterpunch.org/james01292003.html


As for Archer the horsetrading that went on to drop serious charges that would have seen him jailed for over 10 years were all political and not legal manuvers. The man was Thatcher's rottweiler and protected her personal involvement in the Shirley Porter Gerrymandering Homes for Votes fiasco, inter alia.

David Cameron's stellar rise to power owes everything to the dumbing down of criminal charges against Aitken & Archer, and the subsequent sanitisation of their rehabilitation into public life.

The man is a rogue and a pupppet of his stepfather in law Viscount Astor.

Err, no. Davis on Thatcher:







He practically worships the woman.

Davis personally loathes the woman and has always made it clear that the official window dressing of her booting from office in 1990 was one of the Tories' grimmest moments.

And in personal conversation with him he has never been anything other than totally condemnatory of her machiavellian relationship with the Bushes.

Other than that he's publicly towed the official party line for the sake of not stirring up too many John Major years divides.

It's been a while since I talked to him face to face but me and mine have had a number of memorable meetings with him and some of his House colleagues as well as dinner outings en famille.

He's also a staunch pal of Lord Strathclyde.

Maybe you should tell him, the next time you see him, that he's a complete hypocrite, then. It might make him a better person.

I've got to say that anyone who could be as two-faced as you are saying he is shouldn't be entrusted with a school crossing, let alone our liberties.

Personal attack and completely unjustified assinine, judgmental remark.

I have absolutely no doubt that by the end of this year Davis will replace Cameron as leader of the Tories.
And hopefully some of the citations that go with the bravery gongs he has received and kept schtum about will also make headline news.

completely different opinions in private and public. That makes him two faced. You claim he loathes Thatcher in private, but he consistently praises her in public. Yes, I'm judging him; he is a hypocrite, according to your evidence. I can't understand why you think he's a decent politician or person.

they may not air in public for whatever reason, usually either party political ones or eye on the next rung of the career ladder matters.

Having heard him blast Thatcher on the Tories' kid gloves treatment of Aitken and Archer as well as on her etiolation of Bushes 1 & 2 I'd say he plays the game to the hilt. Ditto his condemnation of Tory colleagues who whitewashed 90% of criminal files relating to Robert Maxwell.

He's a pretty accomplished Palace of Westminster poker player who has generally kept his cards pretty close to his chest. And if he is a thorn in the flesh for the fatuous tosser Cameron and his vile stepfather in law Viscount Astor then hip hip hooray.

As for being a decent politician/person I'd say his personal stand last summer on civil liberties is to be admired. And I have had reason to trust him personally during the time I have known him which goes back a long while.

As an example, I came across a Labour MP at a football match a few weeks ago and the only interesting view anyone heard from him was that he approved of the Lloyds TSB/HBOS merger (which came as no suprise). The only thing he was being indiscreet about was Sheffield Wednesday's defending against Reading.

Politicians are actually not that bad at keeping their traps shut when they need to.

I certainly wouldn't.

The point is: it is a politician's *public* attitudes and actions that affect the country and sometimes the world. The fact that a leader may privately dislike Thatcher does not make things any better for the country if he still emulates her when in office.

The public have only been allowed the merest tip of the iceberg peep into the whole Thatcher/Maxwell/Aitken/Archer fiasco never mind the Bushes and Ronald Reagan.

The Tories' choice of sinister, machiavellian Astor glove-puppet stooge Cameron is one that may haunt them for a very long time.

I think it is becoming increasingly certain he will be booted out before Christmas and if thi9s happens I hope Davis sets out his civil liberties stall accordingly.

Lord Strathclyde's stand on the sovereignity/independence of Parliament is a case in point.

I don't find Cameron sinister, however. I just find him a prat.

Davis would be much worse in my opinion. Too many of his policies are fanatically right-wing.

But I hope we never find out about what either of them is like as Prime Minister.

I see little reason why the Tories would boot out Cameron, as he is (unfortunately) leading in the polls right now.