It's not really news as it's probably occurred to just about everyone at some point or another that it's simply a matter of time before the UK is targeted again by terrorists. Rather than fret about the unknown we tend to get on with things, not because we're confident that the powers that be will look out for us, but simply because what the fuck can you do? Avoid beards? Stay on the other side of the M25? Blame the innocent? Turn a blind eye to what goes on in our airspace? Bollocks to all that.
Lord Carlile however has to worry about these things, or at least make an educated guess at what the chances are of that next attack and how much safer new laws and prevention techniques will make us. The rhetoric is Tom Clancyesque and probably devised to both keep us on our toes and let the 'bad guys' know that we know they're still a threat. So if we're in "real and present danger of shocking terrorism acts" is there anything at all we can do about it?
Well the good news is there a few things that we DON'T have to do. Like lock up every Tom, Dick and Harry that we suspect of wishing us ill. That however means relying on slightly less draconian (but still very icky) control orders, which according to Lord Carlile "have been an effective protection for national security". So perhaps we can quit throwing away the key and ignoring all those pesky human rights. He went on to suggest that those already under such control orders should continue to be investigated and then once the evidence piles up we may actually have a case to hold them.
While he's all for monitoring the system closely to make sure that current imposed restrictions are actually necessary they still leave a bad taste in our mouths. That said though they do seem to be a whole lot more complicated than say chucking everyone we don't like the look of into a concentration camp or shipping them off to Egypt to torture the truth out of them.
Perhaps being British these days means we just prefer stacks of paperwork and arguing things like this out in public rather than getting on with the job of building an Evil Empire (been there done that). Shami Chakrabarti of Liberty is of course not scared of keeping the debate alive:
"Justice must never be compromised in the name of security, and we urge Parliament to again reject counterproductive anti-terror measures in the next round"
It's hard of course to speak of justice when you can't trust people. Especially when those people that we elect to do their very best to work for our best interests seem to be more interested in being complete and utter twats:
Bush and Blair discussed using American Spyplane in UN colours to lure Saddam into war.
