Conference paranoia shows why we should not have detention without trial

New Labour’s paranoia at their own conference today has proven that they are afraid of criticism and even more afraid of the truth.  If they are willing to evict an 80 year old Labour Party member for daring to accuse the Foreign Secretary of lying, is it any surprise that there is so much concern about the introduction of 3 month detention without trial for suspected terrorists?

This is not the first time that New Labour has acted in such an inappropriate way – in fact they are developing quite a reputation for it.  Remember the treatment of protestors when the Chinese President visited, when people were hounded out of the view of the President and were denied the right to protest?  They also had the nerve to change the Law because Brian Haw had the nerve to express his views on Parliament Green.  On a number of occasions during elections we have seen protestors evicted from halls where leading members of New Labour have been speaking.

I am afraid there are many people like me who do not trust New Labour to use 3 month detention periods responsibly, bearing in mind this is the Government that was even willing to send our troops to War based on a lie.  This may sound extreme, and perhaps it is, but thee is potentially a fine line between promoting terrorism and extremism and being critical of the Government’s actions over Iraq and it would not be difficult to stretch the truth (which is a New Labour speciality after all) to make legitimate criticism sound like extremism.  This possibility is made all the more likely given what many see as an unhealthily close relationship between Number 10 and the other Blair – the head of the Metropolitan Police.