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Counter-Terrorism Bill

I apologise for my late arrival. I did not arrive until after the opening speeches had begun, because I had to deliver a keynote address in Paris to a seminar on Afghanistan run by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. I remind the House that in 2005 I escaped having to make a decision on the 90-day limit because I was Chairman of the Committee considering the Bill in question, and found no cause to exercise my mind strenuously in that direction. I remember distinctly saying to my hon. Friend the Member for Walsall, North (Mr. Winnick) ““David, why do you go winnicking on about 28 days?”” He thought it rather unkind at the time, but I think he has since found the courage to accept my feeble attempt at humour. It gives me no joy or satisfaction to oppose this proposal, but it seems crazy to me. When the 42-day limit was first proposed, I thought ““We agreed to 28 days when they wanted 90 days. Why, when they want to extend the limit again, do they not ask for 90 days again?”” That led me to examine the proposal more carefully, and to understand the logic behind much of the argument that we have heard today. I do not want to go into the niceties of the legal terminology. That was done brilliantly by my hon. Friend the Member for Hendon (Mr. Dismore). He referred not only to some of the legal mistakes, but to a range of options that have apparently been rejected—which is a great shame, because if we were serious about these proposals they could have provided us with a solution. Apart from the standard briefings from the agencies professionally engaged in these considerations, I have received only one representation from a constituent who supports the 42-day proposal. All the other constituents who have got in touch have opposed the measure, but today I received a text on my mobile. I cannot switch it on, Mr. Deputy Speaker, as you well know, but I can reveal the contents of the message. My constituent has asked me not to oppose the Government because of the danger that doing so would pose to the three marginals in Teesside.