Britain's Labour government has won the vote to extend to 42 days the amount of time it can detain terror suspects without charge. It won by the slenderest of margins; 9 votes and did so mainly with the support of Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party. Although the Home Secertary will have to clear numerous hurdles to hold suspects for the duration it won the vote against an almost totally united opposition led by the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.
It has done so with widespread public support and it may well be rewarded with a slight poll bounce. The support the measure received within the wider public shows that the reactive politics of fear trump reasoned argument and should send a warning to those people who wish to defend our civil liberties. It shows that, to put it bluntly, we need to make our case and be more forceful in doing so; people need to see how legislation like this impacts their lives and sets a dangerous precedent for the erosion of every single person's liberty. However, Britain's second chamber, the House of Lords will almost certainly throw out the proposals.
The debate was lively with good contributions from all sides of the House; something which showed a clear coalition of opposition to these proposals. Chris Huhne and Sir Menzies Campbell made impassioned contributions for the Liberal Democrats as did Diane Abbot from the Labour side, at least showing their may be some decent people left on the government benches. She rightly questioned what Parliament was for if not to represent those communities that will potentially suffer most from this new legislation. A number of speakers expressed the danger that these measures put us in danger of becoming the very thing we are fighting; that danger has been clear and present since 9/11 and it is now manifesting itself in various ways.
Numerous reports are circulating that the Democratic Unionist's went to the government with a 'shopping list' of demands and will now see some concessions. Rebel Labour MP's were also granted concessions with particular focus being on the easing of sanctions on Cuba. Despite this 37 Labour MP's defied the government whip.