Guardian [UK]

11/21/05

Tony Blair warned the House of Lords last night not to defy public opinion by moving to wreck the government's terror bill today as further objections to the measures emerged from chief police officers and the civil liberty lobby. On the eve of the second reading in the Lords, leaders of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties gave Downing Street notice that they would give the bill 'a thorough going-over' and scrutinise its provisions line-by-line before sending it back to the Commons. After a revolt by 49 Labour backbenchers, MPs have already modified a central clause of the bill. It would now permit the police to hold terrorist suspects for 28 days without charge pending further investigation -- instead of the current 14 and the 90 days initially proposed. But the much-trumpeted support senior police officers gave that clause does not extend to the entire bill, the Guardian has learned...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,12780,1647283,00.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp