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| Tony Terror chipping away at
our liberties |
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Lord Chief Justice, Lord Philips of Worth Matravers
Michael Mansfield QC
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I GOT a taste this week of the opposition slowly gathering to
the attempt by El Presidente to chain our freedoms.
Who is he? Tony Blair. And I am in good company here with fears
of the threat to our liberties expressed this week by the Lord Chief
Justice, Lord Philips of Worth Matravers. And this was echoed by
more than 200 lawyers at a London meeting earlier in the week.
What has sent shivers down their spines is the right to hold a suspect
for three months – a death knell to Habeus Corpus enshrined
in the Magna Carta – which is at the heart of a new Terror
Bill spelled out yesterday (Wednesday).
But first, another departure from fine, old British traditions –
the shoot-to-kill policy revealed when police shot a young Brazilian,
Juan Charles de Menezes seven times in the head at Stockwell Tube
station.
This is not being accepted without a protest – and in a crowded
lecture hall at the London School of Economics in Holborn on Monday
evening protesters supported the launch of a campaign for “justice”
to uncover the truth behind the killing of the young Brazilian Juan.
Juan’s mother, a small middle-aged woman, spoke for a few minutes
with quiet, restrained passion, determined, she said, to “fight
on” until the police who killed her son face prosecution.
The campaign’s lawyer, Gareth Pierce – a Camden Town based
solicitor – described as “indefensible” the death
of the young Brazilian. She asked why the police’s new shoot-to-kill
policy had been implemented without public debate. Behind it lay
“sinister” forces whose “moral turpitude” encouraged
a growing malaise in our justice system, she insisted.
Another tough solicitor – Louise Christian whose offices are
in Bloomsbury – kicked off the next campaign on Tuesday, this
time against the new Terror Bill, finding it “unbelievable”
that the government should introduce new legislation against terrorists
when sufficient laws existed to deal with it. She contrasted New
Labour’s “knee jerk” reaction to that of Spain where
new laws weren’t introduced following the Madrid bombing that
killed nearly 200 people.
To a crowded committee room in the Commons, the eminent QC Michael
Mansfield told “liberty” campaigners he knew all about
terror – more than 30 years ago his car had been blown up by
IRA bombers outside the Old Bailey.
Faced with terrorism since the 70s, all governments – to win
votes – have introduced new laws, on the grounds they were
only “temporary”. But they have remained on the statute
book. Now the new Bill ratcheted up the gravest danger to our liberties
yet, he said.
He found it “disgraceful” that only one or two MPs had
bothered to attend the protest meeting.
A chance for an unsporting Ali?
IS Alastair Campbell about to take up a post at the heart of
London’s Olympic planning team, I wonder?
The former Downing Street spin chief (pictured) was locked in discussion
with 2012 bid chairman Lord Coe when I spotted them at a school
sport celebration at Gospel Oak School yesterday (Wednesday).
The two then disappeared into headteacher Alan Seymour’s office
for 20 minutes before re-emerging with big grins on their faces.
It may just have been a friendly chat, of course, but Campbell’s
love of sport – he ran the marathon and writes a sports column
for The Times – is well-known and both are busy men.
If his trip with the British Lions touring party in New Zealand
wasn’t a run-away success, he can hardly be blamed – his
job was to deal with the press, not tackle Tana Umaga.
And with two Tories in Coe and Colin Moynihan heading up the planning,
it may be tempting to bring in someone with such close contacts
to the Prime Minister.
So will Campbell get the job? Lord Coe told me: “Ali has already
been very helpful…” when he was rudely interrupted by
Campbell. “Don’t tell him anything, it’s a scurrilous
local paper”, he warned.
He wasn’t in a better mood when I asked him how the book everyone
thinks he’s writing about his time in Downing Street was going.
His response: “Get a life.”
I’ll try to remember that one when it comes out and I’m
asked to read it.
‘X’ marks the spot for Bob
AN astonishing admission has been made by firebrand union leader
Bob Crow – that he voted for the Lib Dems in the last general
election.
Bob (pictured) – whose Maritime, Rail and Transport union has
cut off its affiliation to New Labour – made his revelation
on Sunday in a speech following the premiere of a documentary highlighting
a two-week protest by the RMT against the “privatisation”
of the rail network.
He said that in his East London constituency only the Lib-Dem candidate
spoke against New Labour’s “privatisation” of the
London Tube network.
“I put my vote on the policy my union stands for,” he
told the audience at Birkbeck College in Bloomsbury where the film
Rail Against Privatisation, made by Chris Reeves of King’s
Cross, was premiered.
Crow, who has a habit of getting to the meat of a subject in his
speeches, warned that Gordon Brown would be no different than Tony
Blair. “People in the Labour Party hope that sometime in the
future things will get better under Gordon Brown – but, I ask
you, in the future we’ll all be dead, and really what’s
the use of hoping..?”, he said.
Congratulations!
Congratulations to Dame Jane Roberts. Cllr Roberts (pictured)
– who stepped down as Labour group leader this month –
who married her long term boyfriend David, a psychiatrist, on
Saturday.
Following the nuptials, which without an invitation I assume must
have been at the Town Hall, guests retired to the German Gym in
St Pancras.
It was a low key reception. The couple, who have been together
for more than ten years, had to keep their guest list down.
I only discovered the betrothal when Cllr Phil Turner blurted
out the news regarding the happy couple’s honeymoon at a
cabinet meeting last night (Wednesday).
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