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.

It is important that the Government tasks the police with investigating the claims by Binyam Mohamed that UK secret services colluded with his torturers.

Whether or not there is any substance to the claims is a police matter. There are allegations of MI5 collusion with torture and they must be fully investigated.

Jacqui Smith must order police unrestricted access to MI5 officers and files.

One things for sure; if Binyam Mohamed had no love for the west before he was picked up, tortured and incarcerated without trial for nearly seven years, he certainly won’t now.

Are we preventing terrorism or breeding it?

I say “No shinola sherlock”

Stella Rimington is absolutely right when she talks of  people in Britain feeling as if they were living “under a police state”.

42 days detention without trial, ID cards, CCTV, dubious arrests under terrorism laws, your emails and txt messages spied on, Guantanamo, rendition by and torture for UK and US secret services, house arrest without trial…

In seven years the Labour Government has torn up the liberties of the British citizen and replaced them with a hotchpotch of pseudo-totalitarian knee jerk reactions aided and abetted by the gutter press.

The initial reaction of Tony Blair (remember him) following the attacks on September 11th 2001 was that we would stand up to terrorism and the British way of life would not be changed by terrorism.

Since then, the government has introduced legistation, statutory instruments and policy which has impacted on the British way of life and liberty more than ever before.

The biggest problem with these kind of laws is that once they are on the statute books they are incredibly difficult to repeal without the Mail and Express screaming “WEAK ON TERROR…TERROR SUSPECTS ARE LOWERING OUR HOUSE PRICES!!!!”

It was said by Lib Dems at the time that if we must have liberty curtailing legislation it must always be subject to a sunset clause to ensure it either lapses or has to be renewed after a few years.

Stella Rimington’s comments echo yesterday’s publication of a study by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) that accuses the US and the UK of undermining the framework of international law.

Now is the time to roll back these draconian laws and policies.

Lets fight terror with democracy and freedom not more terror.

QI fact: Stella Rimington’s father-in-law wrote a biography of my great-grandfather.