Blair Loses Terror Law Vote

Prime Minister Tony Blair has been at Number 10 Downing Street since 1997, and for the first time, he has lost a significant vote in the House of Commons. On a vote of 322 against, 291 for, the House decided not to extend the time the police could hold a terror suspect from 14 days to 90. While he didn’t make it a vote of confidence, which would have forced his resignation, Mr. Blair made a great to-do over it, even calling the Foreign Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer back from overseas visits. The defeat now brings forward the end of the Blair Years.

Mr. Blair, sensing that the vote would not go his way, said before the MPs marched through the division lobbies, “Sometimes it is better to lose and do the right thing than to win and do the wrong thing.” However, Mr. Blair managed to do the wrong thing while losing. Detaining a suspect for 90 days without charge is the sort of treatment a police state does, not a free democratic society. People convicted of assault in the UK have done less time than 90 days. Remember, suspects are not proved guilty -- and when that presumption goes, so does British freedom.

Mr. Blair claimed that the 90-day detention period, which the police wanted (and have the police anywhere ever asked for less authority?), would enable authorities to unravel the conspiracies threatening Britain in a way that they couldn’t with a 14-day detention period. Except in a recent case, the ricin incident, police actions proved that the longer period still wouldn’t have helped – they released the central suspect who then fled the country after two days in custody. Rather than curtail civil liberties more, the authorities should cease such incompetence.

Lest the world think they are soft on terror, the MPs quickly rallied around a 28-day period as proposed by Labour dissenter David Winnick. But the damage has been done to Mr. Blair; 41 Labour MPs voted against him according to early reports. He can survive a confidence motion, but the clock is ticking.

The Prime Minister said before the last general election that he would not lead Labour beyond this, his third, term. By law, this parliament must dissolve by May 2010. However, Mr. Blair has led the nation to believe Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, would take over in two or three years’ time. As Liberal Democrat MP Simon Hughes said, “It was a major error of judgment, and it undermines Mr. Blair's chances of staying on.” The Prime Minister has been severely damaged by this vote, and the duration of his premiership is probably now measured in months rather than years.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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