Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Not very rapid rebuttal

Downing Street announces that: The Prime Minister will deliver a speech on liberty and emerging threats to security in London at midday today. Mr Brown will cover a range of topics including the use of CCTV, DNA technology and the extension of pre-charge detention to 42 days; is this going to counter the Davis movement for freedom and will the argument and the credibility of Brown be up to the task? While using a lot of anecdotes, the link between terrorists and the use of false identities, and playing up the notion of safeguards and the role of the judiciary nothing new was said. One wonders, as the Davis campaign gains momentum and a clear message, to what extent the government will be drawn to respond to specific criticisms as opposed to pledging to protect liberty. The most interesting thing about the statement was the way it was sold by Downing Street, Brown did not talk about security and threats, but liberty and threats, this is the Davis agenda and he has already been drawn onto that territory, is this the end or the beginning?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The politics of complacency, oppositionalism, that is how Davis is painted - or is it simply complacency to expect the British to accept detention without trial or evidence or detention until evidence can be found?
We are not a nation that needs protecting against terrorists, we need protecting against the state