Gordon Brown will today set out counter-terrorism proposals amid reports that he has been considering doubling the current limit for holding terror suspects from 28 to 56 days.

Speaking to The Sun ahead of his Commons statement on security, Mr Brown urged the Conservatives to work with him on counter-terrorism. The deeply contentious issue of detention without trial led to the first Commons defeat for Tony Blair when he attempted to extend the limit to 90 days in November 2005.

The shadow home secretary, David Davis, has signalled that the Conservatives will maintain their opposition to a 90-day limit, insisting that such a move risked "driving young Muslim males into the arms of extremists".
But Mr Brown told the Sun: "I would urge David Cameron to put party politics aside and look at the national interest. We are in a new world.

"We are facing an al-Qaida who are trying to cause carnage. We will agree to protect the public's civil liberties."

Today's statement is expected to set out a number of options for post-charge questioning, including, according to reports, the doubling of the terror suspect detention limit. It is also expected to reaffirm Mr Brown's commitment to the controversial ID card project championed by Mr Blair.

The Guardian

Editorial Comment: See, no change at the top...

But on a more serious note, this is a deliberate breaking of the sacred contract between state and citizen, the very right to a speedy, fair trial amongst our peers has been engraven in stone for time forgotten and the government seeks to just whip it away without a pause.

This is internment, this is imprisonment without trial or knowing the case against you, if the security services are so sure, so dead sure you are doing something illegal then WHY can they not take it to trial?

I have never accepted the Blair/Brown outlook on this, this is state endorsed kidnapping and internemt and what happens at the end of 56 days?  Are the people invariably found innocent reparated in any way?  Of course not because in Britain, suspicion is enough to do what they want.

And what then if the police, security people etc go to Brown in six months time and say, "Hey 56 days is not enough..." and a years time when 120 days is not enough and then the case for unlimited internment is made.

What we are seeing is the tools of the dictator in our very lives, for now its terrorists but look at Australia with its sedition laws, you can get six months there for criticising the government, what if that happened here?  What if it became mandatory that internment is the rule in cases where the police will not get a case for remand, then the government steps in and orders internment.

And for what?  dropping litter?  giving a copper a dirty look?  not parting your hair in the right manner?

Or something more sinister like not voting for the right party...  or criticising the government... or speaking out against injustice...

Those were reasons for internment by the Gestapo, at first, people were fined, punished, towards the end of WWII though it was a different case, people were executed for stealing a loaf of bread or denounced because they annoyed their neighbours.   In Nazi Germany, to utter the mildest criticism against the state was certain death but in the beginning it was not always so...

Is this where we are going?

And folks, remember, the Magna Carta is somewhat a myth but in 1269 there was an amendment to the document known collectively as the Magna Carta which like the American's Declaration of Independence, bestows the right to revolt if the state e.g. the Crown broke its side of the contract.

I think it is time to get out the tar, feathers and hempen ropes to be honest.

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