It’s been a good day in politics. First I woke up to another email from that nice Charles Clarke about the Terrorism Bill. In it he said:
Finally, I would like to apologise for the questionnaire which was attached to the message that I sent out to party supporters on Friday. It was not intended to gauge public opinion but to start a political debate around the proposals currently being debated in Parliament. Many people have raised with me perfectly valid concerns about how the questions were drafted. I can only say that I share those concerns and give my assurance that questions of this type will not used in the future.
Now if you looked too closely at that you’d read the bit that said “it was not intended to gauge public opinion” and compare and contrast with the original email which said “I am emailing you today to find out your views”. You might even think that there was a bit of a contradiction there. But let’s be generous and just assume he’s been a bit busy over the last week and really doesn’t have much of an idea about anything right now. I’m sure he’ll get better once he’s had a bit of a lie down.
But wouldn’t it have been nice if any of the mainstream media had taken him to task over the questionnaire.
Anyway, that was just the first course. The day got better. Tony Blair was beaten on the 90-day clause. That looks good so I’ll write it again…
TONY BLAIR WAS BEATEN ON THE 90-DAY CLAUSE!
Of course they’ve still managed to double (double!) the amount of time that you can be held without charge. And they’ve still passed the ridiculous “glorifying terrorism” clause. But it really made my day to hear that the 90-day clause had been defeated. The only thing that would have improved it would have been if the cameras had been focussed on Blair’s face as the result was announced.