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Terrorism Act 2000 (Proscribed Organisations) (Amendment) Order 2008

My Lords, I am glad that the noble Lord, Lord Corbett of Castle Vale, reminded us of the history of the matter; it is not a happy one. However, there is little point my repeating it now that it has been given to your Lordships, so I shall briefly touch on another matter. Tonight may be a time less for recrimination and more for thanks to all those who have brought us to the position in which we are today. I would like us all to record our thanks to the noble and learned Lord, Lord Slynn of Hadley. To have such a distinguished lawyer on our side was an enormous bonus, and what he had to say obviously carried enormous weight. The noble Lord, Lord Corbett, should be thanked by all of us for his magnificent leadership as chairman of our committee. Then there were those who represented us in court—they did a marvellous job—and the members of the NCRI in London, who had campaigned tirelessly for years to achieve this result. One thing is left to be done. It is now surely up to the Government to see that the EU listing, which was based on the then Home Secretary’s original order to proscribe, is also brought to an end. On 12 June the noble Lord, Lord Bassam, said at col. 670 that as the British listing alone underpinned the EU listing it was likely to be reviewed. That is simply not good enough. When a decision no longer has any legal basis—the decision in Europe does not any more, because the legal basis was proscription in this country—it should be reversed forthwith, not reviewed. It is the Government’s job and duty to see that that reversal takes place.