Between Castle and Cathedral
November 19th, 2007It was with some trepidation that I returned last weekend to Durham, after a gap of nearly ten years. A group of seven of us who had been together at Hatfield College from 1987 to 1990 met up in the shadow of the greatest cathedral in the world on Friday evening. Frankly, the whole place seemed livelier than the Durham of the late 1980’s, which is understandable given that there are now over 10,000 undergraduates there, as opposed to only 4,500 then.
A quick walk up to Palace Green and a look in at the Union Society revealed a packed Chamber being addressed by none other than Jon Snow. I was delighted to visit the Office and see that the Robson Cup, which had suffered greatly at the hands of former Secretary and emeritus President, Richard Bull, had been restored to its former glory (he dropped it on the stairs).
The main difference between now and then was that most of the doors to college and other University buildings were governed by key codes. making access somewhat difficult. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Hatfield College Chapel was open on Saturday evening, allowing me to recall my rather poor contribution to the College Choir on Sunday mornings twenty years ago.
One of my favourite songs from Julian Slade’s musical “Salad Days” is when the newly-graduated heroes sing “Never Look Back”. Here I was, conspicuously breaking this rule with my friends but I am relieved to report that none of us was ready to wallow too much in shallow nostalgia. There was much more talk about the here and now than there was about the past.
I see that 7/7 bomb victim Rachael North has written an article in the Sunday Times questioning the wisdom of extending the period of detaining suspected terrorists without charge to 56 or even 58 days. Some commentators have been suggesting that the proposals are more about the Government seeking to outflank the Conservatives by being tough on terrorism than they are about security. I am not at all sure about this view. The Government’s independent advisor on security issues, Lord Carlile QC, has called for a mature debate on this issue, free from party political posturing. I entirely agree with him. In recent days, there has been great confusion emanating from members of the Government about this issue. This is not only bad politics, it is bad for our security.
My view is that there may well be a few cases in which further questioning after charge can be allowed, but I am not at all convinced of the merits of extending the 28 day limit. We mustn’t forget that changes to detention limits have been made fairly frequently over the last ten years, from only two days, via fourteen, to four weeks. We are told that we must be ready for future developments by extending the time limit now, which is an admission that for any criminal investigation up to now, such an extension would not have been necessary. We are entitled to ask whether the threat to Britain is greater now than during the last war, for example.
The clear and present threat to our safety cannot be underestimated, but surely the best approach to the problem is to make sure that those responsible for detecting and preventing terrorist crime have the resources to mount large-scale and detailed investigations in swift order. Whilst the views of the police and security services are important, it is the duty of Ministers and legislators to balance them against other vital interests, such as the liberty of the individual. There has been far too much of the “meek acceptance” approach by Government, as opposed to one of “intelligent questioning”. The detention before charge debate is an opportunity for this Government to partially redeem itself, but it looks doubtful that they will take it.
