Well I dunno about anyone else, but the fact that the PMOS could utter such words demonstrates quite clearly the complete disregard the government actually has for the human rights of the individual. If such a framework is put in place the potential for abuse is simply staggering. Remember that everything is relative; if we were to suddenly have an increase in the "threat level", then even though "he made clear that with regards to the extreme end of the control orders, we envisaged that it would only be used against a very few people", if there were a multitude of threats, a "very few people" could in fact mean "quite a lot of people".

And it doesn’t take a great count of years for the number of "threats" to increase. I mean only recently we have the whole IRA Bank Raid Sinn Fein Implicated shenanigans, which means that militancy in Ireland (and according to recent reports, on the mainland) has the potential to increase again; we have constant pin-pricks from "Al Qaeda", and I daresay that with more mis-policy by Western governments, plenty more threats could be contrived.

Look at how many times David Blunkett asked for even more "extraordinary powers" in his time as Home Secretary. If this framework were in place and the HS needed to tinker with it due to "new or increased threat levels", and he needed more "extraordinary powers", think about how easy it would be for a small amount of rewording to make the whole think read "he made clear that with regards to the extreme end of the control orders, we envisaged that they would need to be used against an increasing number of people", or similar.

And all this on the strength of "intelligence"…

Would this be the same kind of "intelligence" which took this country into an unnecessary war, against a country ravaged by years of sanctions and abuse, killing thousands and costing billions? The same kind of "intelligence" as that presented as irrefutable proof that Iraq had WMD and, make no mistake, "they will use them against us"? Presented by the same government and "intelligence services" which used such later-discredited gems as Nuclear Material From Niger and various friends of cousins boyfriends sisters dads sons uncles brothers in Iraq who "knew someone who had heard something about WMD" as that proof?

Forgive me, but for some reason I’m a touch skeptical…

Curious \x97 the government has no problem getting a judge out of bed when they need to get an injunction against a Sunday newspaper in a hurry…