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Counter-Terrorism Bill

I do not know whether the procedures of the Committee envisage such arguments. May I conclude by trying to deal with the point of the noble Lord, Lord Sewel? There is a significant difference between post-charge and pre-charge detention, and that is the difference with which we are concerned. It is not an academic difference; once one has been charged and is being detained, as is the case on the Continent as well as here, a different set of safeguards arises. The noble Lord is perfectly right that in some of the continental systems, people are detained for very long periods after they have been charged. The same, of course, is true here. The question is whether pre-charge detention periods should be extended. The noble Lord, Lord Tebbit, referred, quite correctly, to internment in Northern Ireland. That was a classic example of detention indefinitely without charge. To those noble Lords who say that the threat of terrorism is so appalling that we must do anything to counter it, logically their position is—or should be—in favour of internment, without any time limits, until the evidence has been forthcoming. That is what, at the height of the Second World War, Winston Churchill described as, "““in the highest degree odious””," and I think he was right. We are now facing a serious threat, but no greater than when we were fighting the Nazis in the Second World War. That is why this Committee has a peculiar responsibility today to strike a fair balance, as has been said, between the need to protect the lives of our people against a serious threat of terrorism and the need to uphold our tradition as a country which respects the rule of law. I have come to the conclusion, even after listening with an open mind to the noble Lord, Lord Carlile of Berriew, that that Government have made a classic mistake. The Minister is a distinguished Navy man; perhaps he will forgive me for making a comment as an Army man. I was taught in the Army that it is a classic mistake to dig a trench, to be flushed out of it, to dig another trench, be flushed out of that, and then to be on the run. I believe that that is exactly the Government’s position: they dug a trench which was indefensible; they were flushed out of it on the question of 90 days; and now they are trying to defend 42 days without, I believe, any objective justification for doing so. I very much hope that this evening’s debate will be the second mutiny at Spithead, but that this one will have a better and quicker resolution.