It won’t make me feel safer, Jacqui

Dear Jacqui Smith,

Just give it a rest, will you?  Honestly.  Doesn’t the sheer volume of opposition to your proposals to increase the detention limit for terrorist suspects, including from within your own party, tell you something?

If you could show the public independent evidence that a possible conviction or case against an individual (or better still, several individuals) fell apart because the police and security services needed an extra four weeks to find evidence on someone, then I might be willing to listen.  Apparently, your argument is that you need 56 days to ’sift through the evidence’ and communicate with international agencies?  Here’s a tip from me - how about you collect your evidence against someone and make a convincing case against them BEFORE you arrest them?  Radical, I know, but it would certainly solve your problem.

This latest attack on civil liberties does little to restore the public’s faith in the government when it comes to fighting terrorism.

With deep misgivings,

A.Tory