09 November 2005

The innocent go free after only one month

Tony Blair suffered a personal defeat when parliament today voted down his proposal to lock everyone up for 90 days.
"It is the only way to stop terrorism," he said prior to the vote. "If everyone is locked up then they cannot be blowing things up."
But MPs refused to back his plans and instead voted for a period of only 28 days. Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy said it was a victory for freedom: "Clearly we are a step closer to becoming a police state if we lock innocent people up for 29 days," he said. "But at 28 days... that is just democracy in action."
Abdul El Plates of the banned organisation Bloody November Weather said: "This is a victory for terrorism. Being locked up for 90 days would certainly have put most fundamentalists off arbitrary killing, but 28 days away from your family ... that's a holiday."
Speaking after the vote, Mr Blair said: "This was not a defeat for me personally. It was democracy in action and underscores our determination not to succumb to these evil backbenchers."