JohnBM:Liberal

BBC News reports that the police are to investigate MI5 complicity in the torture claims of Binyam Mohamed.

Two weeks before starting a criminal investigation into torture claims does seem a little on the slow side.

I would hope that the West Yorkshire Police would be  a little quicker off the mark if I was to report being kidnapped, flown illegally across the world and tortured in numerous locations.

On the plus side; its good to see some action taking place.

On the minus side; lets hope somebody hasn’t spent the last fortnight stood in front of the office shredder.

Hundreds of terrorists, murderers and other dangerous and violent prisoners across the country could have their convictions quashed if claims of police bugging of privileged legal meetings prove to be true.

Senior police officers are alleged to have routinely ordered the bugging of category A prisoner’s meetings with lawyers and other visitors in prisons across the country.

The mere recording of a legally privileged conversation could be enough to render any conviction unsafe. Hundreds of prisoners may have to be retried by the courts. Meaning hundreds of victims and families could have old wounds reopened, witnesses having to face aggressive cross-examination again and legal costs running into tens of millions of pounds.

Chris Huhne is absolutely right to order a full inquiry into what could be a fundamental and rudimentary failure of police intelligence (in more ways than one), a failure with far reaching operational and political consequences.