Ed Balls signals shift on 28 days detention
8:37 am - November 21st 2010
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It was one of Ed Miliband’s key points when he launched his campaign for leadership: New Labour’s push for 90 / 42 days pre-charge detention was a bad idea.
He said he would seek to change that and as I said earlier the new shadow cabinet would have to follow suit.
Shadow home secretary Ed Balls has said Labour may be ready to back coalition moves to cut the pre-charge detention period for terror suspects to 14 days.
In a major policy shift, he said he could support changes if they did not impede police and security services.
Mr Balls told the Sunday Telegraph Labour’s reputation had suffered from its attempts in government to raise detention times to 90 and then 42 days.
The coalition has also said it wants to review control orders. Home Secretary Theresa May announced a review of counter-terror legislation in June, when she said her personal view was that the limit should be 14 days, which the Liberal Democrats also support.
I’m happy to support 14 days and glad that the New Generation (TM) is accepting the importance of civil liberties.
The clip on Andrew Marr
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Sunny Hundal is editor of LC. Also: on Twitter, at Pickled Politics and Guardian CIF.
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Reader comments
“In a major policy shift, he said he could support changes if they did not impede police and security services.”
That sounds a bit conditional to me.
There needs to be some proper commitment to sorting out the problems we are told prevent the use of communications intercepts in terrorist cases. Just locking up suspects for ages so that other evidence can be found is simply wrong if there is an existing alternative.
2
Two cheers for the New Generation, which by the way, it sounds like a rather cheesy 70’s dance troupe đ
The proof of the pudding is of course in the eating. Let’s hope it is only the first step in rolling back the whole nauseating New Labour project.
[deleted]
@ kiki short shaft
I don’t know what you’re selling, but fuck off.
@OP
This is good news. Labour’s attack on human rights was both scary and embarrassing by the end. It’s the reason I didn’t vote for them.
@4 you voted for the Lib Dems? lol, how embarrassing
@ 5
Not really. They didn’t exactly explain what they were going to do in their manifesto. It was that or vote for the pro-surveillance, pro-torture party in my neighbourhood. Who would you have backed?
Mr Balls told the Sunday Telegraph Labourâs reputation had suffered from its attempts in government to raise detention times to 90 and then 42 days.
Yep. So they’ll change their minds not because it is right but because it is politically expedient.
Lovely.
Um, since when has arguing that the government should be able to hold people without charge for two weeks been “accepting the importance of civil liberties” rather than “getting to appear liberal whilst supporting a deeply illiberal state of affairs”?
Newer Labour – “Still authoritarian shitheels, but at least we’re apologetic about it.”
Of course he doesn’t think it’s a good idea now that the jackboot’s on the other foot.
But let the comrades back in and within five minutes they’ll get back to trying to turn England into East Germany.
It’s in their ideological DNA.
@5
And supporting the warmongering control freaks is . . . ?
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- Liberal Conspiracy
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[…] of not-quite-liberal liberalism was again on display with Ed Balls this week. He was cheered on by various left-wing bloggers as âaccepting the importance of civil libertiesâ while still arguing that the state should be […]
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