Control Orders

If there is one piece of legislation above all others that summed up the Labour regime's hatred of civil liberties, it is the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005. And the nastiest provision within it was for Control Orders, designed to work around the legally binding provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Actually, what it was really designed to do was to prevent disclosure of the extent of illegal surveillance that takes place in Britain. It was also an admission - as was internment in Northern Ireland - that the justice system as presently constituted cannot cope with terrorism.

If there is one principle that distinguished the LibDems from the other two factions in the 2010 general election and before, when all the Labourite police state legislation was breezing through Parliament, it was their forthright opposition to any and all infringements of historic civil liberties.

So why is opposition to the retention of Control Orders within the Coalition being led by David Davis? He has an admirable track record in this respect, but he is just a back-bencher. Why are we hearing nothing from LibDem ministers? It's not as though they keep their lips zipped about other departures from the LibDem manifesto.

Yeah, well, that is a rhetorical question. They are keeping silent because they never expected to be in power and office has made cowards and hypocrites of them all.