The former head of MI5, Baroness Manningham-Buller, told the House of Lords that she objected to the bill to enable the security services to hold suspected terrorists for 42 days without charge because:

I don’t see, on a principled basis, as well as a practical one, that these proposals are in any way workable.

She also pointed out various other obvious home truths – that Labour don’t appear to get – that there is a “balance between the right to life”, that “the fact [is] that there is no such thing as …

This isn’t something I expected to read in the Guardian. But it is a brilliant piece:

Whether David Davis makes of himself a public hero or a popular buffoon by his plunge into notoriety, he stands for me as an allegorical monitor of our times. His behaviour has been quixotic, but like the great mad progenitor of the condition, Don Quixote of La Mancha, he is fighting a cause in a truly fateful battle – a battle for liberty of the human spirit…
The ubiquitous CCTV cameras are the emblems of this …

David Davis’ resignation from the Shadow Cabinet and Parliament shows the fundamental differences between Westminster politicians and commentariat the people.
Whilst they appear to look at it solely through the eyes of party politics – asking questions such as “how will this affect the Conservative party” and “how will this affect David Davis’ career” – the people, whilst suspicious of his motives, are generally supportive of him and glad to see that a politician is putting his principles in to practice.
They are glad to see a politician who, firstly has principles …

Wow. What an unexpected outcome of the lost vote over 42 days detention. Not something I was expecting to see when I clicked on to the BBC website at lunch time!
The resignation of the Shadow Home Secretary, not just from the Shadow Cabinet but as an MP. But only so that he can take the question directly to the people, and with any luck win the people of this country over to the idea of freedom from the creep of the Big Brother state.
David Davis made today a very courageous …

And who could possibly disagree?
If a CCTV camera is there and watches my every move but, should I get mugged under it, if it is of no use in identifying and bringing the criminal to justice then it is utterly pointless and infringes my right to privacy.
If CCTV is used, it must be of high enough quality, in terms of positioning and video, in order to be used as incontrovertible evidence in court. Otherwise, why waste our money on them?

Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, put spin before the safety of the public. Despite knowing about illegal immigrants being employed by the Home Office – as security staff, of all things – in July she did nothing. Well, nothing to protect us anyway. She was far too busy spinning to save herself. In August, a Home Office memo read:
The Home Secretary has seen your submission of today’s date … She agrees with you that this is not ready for public announcement yet.
So she knew, but did nothing about it.
How can …

So now you just assume everyone’s guilty of smething?
The whole population and every UK visitor should be added to the national DNA database, a senior judge has said.The present database in England and Wales holds details of 4m people who are guilty or cleared of a crime.Lord Justice Sedley said this was indefensible and biased against ethnic minorities, and it would be fairer to include everyone, guilty or innocent. (BBC)
It is indefensible and biased – but it would not be fairer to include everyone, guilty of innocent. Why not instead …

In response to a post of mine yesterday, James Higham at Nourishing Obscurity has written this post:
Have I not consistently said and continue to do so and I think Iain Dale is right on the money with this one, that the very best talent the Tories have is sitting right beside the current shadow PM?
But no one listens to me.
The man can run rings round the opposition and most certainly the powers that be that I blog against [plus Labour] would not want Davis anywhere near the controls. Better to …

There is no doubt that David Davis has scored a significant goal against Home Secretary Jacqui Smith with this open letter [extract below]:
Dear Jacqui,
We are all concerned at the rising tide of violent crime that has manifested itself this week in a spate of shocking killings, including the tragic death of young Rhys Jones. You told GMTV this morning that “statistics aren’t a help but gun crime is down”. That is an extraordinary claim.
According to Home Office figures, gun crime (excluding air weapons) has almost doubled since Labour took office. …