Brown shows true colours in grim year for liberties

The Guardian | Dec. 31, 2007

By Marcel Berlins

For law and justice, the year that is just ending was, I believe, one of the most depressing for many years. My occasional twinge of optimism that 2008 will be slightly less gloomy soon disappears when I realise that Gordon Brown will be in charge. He has already shown himself to be as determined as his predecessor to continue the drive against civil liberties and the rule of law. He delivered an interesting speech praising liberty, and made a few minor gestures relaxing some of Blair's more extravagant anti-freedom laws (such as the prohibition of unauthorised protests within a kilometre of parliament) but he showed his true colours by insisting on trying to extend the 28-day maximum detention period for terrorist suspects, and continuing the Blair push for ID cards.

Happily, both those grand schemes are encountering setbacks. The sought-after detention period, which started at 90 days under Blair, was then rumoured to have descended to 56 days and was finally announced by the home secretary as 42 days

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