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| THE REAL CONSENSUS ON PRE-CHARGE DETENTIONWhen the Prime Minister first suggested extending pre-charge detention he said that the proposals would “establish a cross-party consensus”. There is a large and growing consensus – but the Government is not part of it. Criticism of the Government’s plans has come from every section of society and every strand of political opinion. Both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats oppose the Government’s plans, as do a large number of Labour MPs, the Church of England, many Muslim groups, and the public at large. This is the real consensus. Below are just a few quotes taken from the full document, which you can download as a PDF. | David Davis MP, Shadow Home Secretary“Neither the Director of Public Prosecutions nor the last Attorney-General have seen the evidence to go beyond 28 days. Terrorism will be defeated by good intelligence, professional policing and the rigorous application of justice, not by incursions into the freedoms and rights that British subjects have had for centuries.” |
| Nick Clegg MP, Liberal Democrat Leader“Lord Goldsmith has blown the government's cover. When their most senior law officer for much of the last 10 years says he is unpersuaded by the case to extend detention without charge then the hollowness of the government's case is there for all to see." |
| Sue Hemming, Head of Counter-Terrorism, Crown Prosecution Service“We have no evidence to support that we need beyond 28 days. We certainly have not needed it in any case up until now.” |
| Parliamentary Home Affairs Select Committee“Neither the police nor the Government have made a convincing case for the need to extend the 28-day limit on pre-charge detention. We consider that there should be clearer evidence of need before civil liberties are further eroded, not least because without such evidence it would be difficult to persuade the communities principally affected that the new powers would be used only to facilitate evidence gathering and not as a form of internment.” |
| Sir Ken MacDonald, Director of Public Prosecutions“The most I can say is that it is a matter of record that we have not asked for an increase. We are satisfied with the position as it stands at the moment.” |
| Rachel North, Survivor of 7/7 Bombs in London“I have not seen anything that convinces me that longer than 28 days is needed...it’s fundamentally important to us as a country that we do not hold people without them knowing what they’re being charged with and why”. |
| Open letter from Vivienne Westwood, Colin Firth, Iain Banks, Patrick Stewart, Ken Loach, Nick Broomfield, A C Grayling, Lord Ahmed, Kate Allen and 7 others“Habeas corpus, which safeguards people from arbitrary detention by the state, is the bedrock of British justice. A convincing case that it should be eroded has not been made by the Government. The case that it should remain has been made for nearly 800 years.” |
| Lord Dear, former Chief Constable of West Midlands Police and Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary“Let us listen to the police officers on the frontlines who say they don't need pre-charge detention powers for six weeks and would like to forge stronger relationships with minority communities. Have we not learned from the failed internment policy in Northern Ireland that miscarriages of justice - real and imagined - are the best way to recruit new terrorist supporters? If we are to be tough on terror, we must be smarter about terrorism.” |
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Quotes from the growing number of high-profile opponents to extending pre-charge detention, May 2008 (PDF). Read this front-page Guardian article about the impact of the campaign.
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