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Terrorism Bill

I wonder whether I could make a brief contribution from these Benches, although I speak entirely in my own capacity; words such as ““Daniel in the lion’s den”” come immediately to mind. I pay tribute to those who have brought the amendment before the Chamber and in doing so have enabled the debate, not least because it is parallel to some extent with the debates that we are having on the Identity Cards Bill and those that we will have on Monday in the incitement debate in the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill. We are at a point in our society where we must make difficult choices about the balance between civil liberty and protecting our citizens. We have always had to make those choices; one thinks of the 2,000 or 3,000 deaths on our roads each year, when we could easily take decisions greatly to reduce those. They have been reducing gradually in an incremental way, but laws could be passed to restrict the use of motor cars, to limit speed, or to have draconian punishments. It is, as the noble Lord said, a matter of balance. The argument is strong on both sides. It is one of those situations where it is wrong to say that the truth is on one side, and it is one of those cases where you genuinely have to balance very strong arguments. At the heart of it is the mystery as to what terrorism is and what it will mutate into in the future. The discussions about avian flu in a way cast some light for me on the nature of modern terrorism. It is a curious mixture of old-fashioned religion and modern nihilism, allied to technological advances that none of us would have thought of 10 or 15 years ago. None of us quite knows how the terrorist threat will mutate. I could quite believe that at some point, with a heavy heart, we will need to legislate for longer than 28 days. There is some wisdom in going incrementally for 28 days at this point. The other House was wise on that point, but we need to leave the issue open in the longer term. I am persuaded that the balance of 28 days is right at this stage, because there is a real danger of spooking our society with rather draconian laws in the face of an uncertain threat and over-reacting, and the media encourages that all the time. Perhaps when she replies the Minister can confirm that even after 28 days, as I understand it, if there is sufficient evidence to establish a control order putting certain restrictions on people, an investigation can continue beyond 28 days and restrictions can be placed on people even if the evidence does not stack up to make a charge viable at that point. Part of the evidence that persuades me that on balance 28 days is right is that there is not a strict cut-off at 28 days. It is 28 days of detention without charge. Investigations can go on in fairly controlled circumstances after that date.