Blair and Blunkett experience what Control Order detainees have long known

11.26.23pm GMT Mon 5th Feb 2007

Politicians should be careful about expressing criticism of an ongoing police investigation. If anyone is charged, it is important to consider the possible impact on the chance of defendants receiving a fair trial. A politician can also expect their own motives for commenting on operational matters to be examined. Especially when it is their own political party that is a subject of the investigation they have questioned. It is regrettable to see so many senior Labour party figures publicly criticising operational decisions, and the length of time being taken by the Metropolitan Police as it looks into 'cash for honours' accusations.

Philip C James, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary spokesman for Bristol East, said:

"I don't intend to comment on the police investigation but on Labour's reaction to it."

"David Blunkett wants the police to hurry their enquiry into whether peerages were granted in exchange for secret loans to political parties. He is concerned that a lengthy and indefinite period of uncertainty over whether anyone will be charged will harm the Prime Minister's mental well-being."

Channel 4 Dispatches humanised those we have been led to believe are inhuman; where evidence shows these men are indeed terrorists, let it be tested in court

"Perhaps he now understands the injustice and mental torment being experienced by a small number of British and foreign Muslims held under Control Orders introduced by him and confirmed by his successor Charles Clarke?"

"They have suffered several years of imprisonment followed by house arrest imposed without trial, charge or even sight of the secret evidence our government claims to have against them. With no end in sight."

"That only a handful are subject to these Orders is no excuse for our state to ride roughshod over civil liberties, yet this Labour government has extended Control Orders to cover British as well as foreign Muslim terror suspects. It now wants to apply them next to suspected organised crime barons. Who else will be affected by extensions to these laws passed by future governments? Tax evaders? Sex offenders? Political opponents? Speeding motorists? Where would it stop? We are sleepwalking with grandmothers' footsteps into state tyranny. The time to call a halt is now."

"In the interests of justice, let the police finish their enquiries without pressure from politicians. And in the interests of their families and themselves, let all who fall under suspicion have their day in court so that their guilt may be proved or their innocence established."

Related Link:

Channel 4 Dispatches - at home with the terror suspects.