| Prime Minister has Cried Wolf Once
By Ronan McGreevy
It was a good day for democracy when Tony Blair’s plans for dealing
with terrorists suffered a House of Commons defeat, argues Ronan McGreevy.
Tony Blair had it coming. And when it happened, he only had himself to
blame. His House of Commons defeat last week, his first in eight years as
Prime Minister, was a victory not only for Labour rebels, but also for those
who believe in good governance.
He wanted a 90 day detention period without charge for terrorist suspects
because the police said it was necessary. They needed that amount of time
to sift through mountains of computer data, travel abroad and interrogate
recalcitrant suspects in obscure dialects.
When it came down to it though, the police couldn’t point to one example
where the existing 14-day period of detention without charge was insufficient.
But that didn’t stop Tony Blair saying that the 90-day detention period
was “absolutely necessary”.
Trust me, he said, I have the best interests of the security of this
country at heart. This is what the experts tell me is needed and I believe
them. Those of you who think otherwise are putting this country’s future
security in jeopardy. Be it on your own heads.
The trouble with this kind of shtick is that we heard it all before.
He laid the same argument in front of the British people in advance of committing
this country to war in Iraq.
Saddam Hussein, he said, was a direct threat to the British people and
he knew because the experts on WMD told him so.
Those experts were wrong, which is one of the reasons why so many MPs
on all sides of the House of Commons, including law and order Tories, were
not prepared to believe the special pleadings of the police.
You do not have to be a civil libertarian or a bleeding heart to see
the concept of 90 days detention without charge as an affront to civilised
values.
In 1974 the House of Commons took just one day to bring in the Prevention
of Terrorism Act (PTA). It was supposed to be a temporary measure.
In the first months of its operation, the extra detention powers were
used to arrest 489 Irish people. Only 16 were ever charged with an offence.
Between 1974 and 1991, only 14 per cent of the 7,052 Irish people in
Britain held under the PTA were ever charged with an offence.
The PTA is best remembered not for thwarting IRA violence, but for spawning
notorious miscarriage of justice cases. The first person held under the
PTA was Paul Hill, one of the Guildford Four.
The Birmingham Six were tortured and beaten and forced into making false
confessions while being questioned under the PTA. If so much damage could
be wrought after just seven days detention, what more could be done in 90
days?
How many innocent Muslim suspects would, under duress and after weeks
of interrogation, make false confessions like the Birmingham Six and Guildford
Four? Despite its draconian powers, the PTA was of no use in pursuing the
real bombers.
How much festering resentment would build up in the British Muslim community
if this law saw young men being lifted off the street and detained for months
on end?
When faced with a terrorist threat, whether it is Irish or otherwise,
the knee-jerk response in Britain has been to ride roughshod over the time-honoured
legal practices which have given this country one of the fairest judicial
systems in the world.
The end justifies the means. So what if a few dodgy Muslims get banged
up for three months without charge even if they have nothing to do with
terrorism?
To the Tories’ credit, they refused to get into a Dutch auction to show
themselves to be even more draconian than the Labour Party. Even if their
motivation was more a matter of politics than principle, they did the right
thing.
Mr Blair is terrified of being on the wrong side of another terrorist
atrocity — so his response is to scare and browbeat his party into doing
his bidding.
We can no longer wait for the next terrorist atrocity, we must act now
is his stock response to those who question his actions.
The police told him that they are facing a new class of fanatic, even
more ruthless and unreasonable than the IRA, so potential terrorists must
be arrested as soon as they are suspected of being about to commit an atrocity.
One can see how easily the logic of that argument might lead to disastrous
miscarriages of justice. This doctrine of pre-emptive action didn’t work
in Iraq and will not work for homegrown terrorism.
After all, a 90-day detention period would not have prevented the events
of July 7. None of the four suicide bombers who blew themselves up that
day had ever come to the attention of the police before.
If terrorists are really intent on blowing themselves up for a cause,
there is little that can be done to prevent it except vigilance and good
luck. That is the unfortunately reality we face with, but you will never
get anybody in the police nor the Government to admit as much.
People expect higher standards from the State than they do from its enemies.
They expect the State to be mindful of the rights of its citizens. Too often
the response is to compromise these values, forfeit the high moral ground
and descend towards the level of the terrorist where individual freedoms
are brushed aside for a cause.
That is what happened under the PTA, that’s what the Americans are doing
in Guantanamo Bay and that is what would have happened had the House of
Commons not put a stop to Tony Blair’s gallop. Last week was a good one
for democracy.
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