UK: Labour defeated on 90 day detention

[damianob]

Tony Blair's proposals for 90 day detention of terror suspects has just been defeated by 322 votes to 291

Bad day for Blair. Good day for human rights.

[fish08]

Fairly surprised by the result. The Labour "rebels" are usually quite easily coerced into the official line when push comes to shove.

Good result, but I would imagine they would still push through a 60-day amendment, which is almost as bad. Could be another example of the old New Labour trick of attempting to push through a more sensational version of the bill, before falling back on the result they wanted all along.

Was interesting to see them attempting to use Tory votes to push it through. Roll on the defeats for New Labour.

[Pidge]

The 28-day amendment has been passed - according to ITV News.

[damianob]

yep - 323 to 290 according to Sky

[CJH]

That's the end of Tony, anyhoo

[BarryW]

Unbelieveable. The scale of the defeat was a shock - I'm absolutely delighted. That Blair should have been so pig-headed about this - during arguably the weakest point of his leadership to date - was absolutely crazy.

I'm delighted that the British Parliamentary system has prevailed, and put manners on both Blair, and the Met. Police in particular - whose conduct during this affair has been absolutely disgraceful. Their dossiers of evidence, and the convenient timing of leaks of various letters to the Home Office, amount to a blatant attempt by them to influence Parliamentary process on such a huge issue.
What is all the more amazing is that Blair has followed their every word, even in the face of calls for sanity from the Home Secretary Charles Clarke.

I watched the PMQs at 12 today - and it was unbelieveable stuff. You can watch it Here
You can hear the stunned silence among MPs on all sides, as they watch Blair's anger boil over - and the cool, measured responses of Michael Howard.

Blair and the Met both insist that the 90 day detention period is absolutely essential. The only problem is that they cannot provide a single shred of evidence to back this claim up!
Michael Howard exposed this brilliantly - and this point alone must have shored up his own MPs opposition to the proposal, and swung a significant number of LAbour MPs against it too

[BarryW]

Just watched the BBC News there:

Hilariously, Blair is taking the line that: "MPs should have listened to the people in the country - they are overwhelmingly in favour of these measures"

The hypocrisy of this position is amazing.

I wonder why he didn't insist that the Commons listen to the people during the debate on whether to authorise the Iraq War, when between 60% and 70% of the public was OPPOSED to his plans ??

Funny that.....

[mjcoughlan]

It seems strange to me that the DUP, which is supposedly such an anti-terrorist party, would have thought that 90 days was excessive.

[ireland2004]

It seems strange to me that the DUP, which is supposedly such and anti-terrorist party, would have thought that 90 days was excessive.

They're probably still having a hissy fit over the OTRs

[fish08]

Unbelieveable. The scale of the defeat was a shock - I'm absolutely delighted. That Blair should have been so pig-headed about this - during arguably the weakest point of his leadership to date - was absolutely crazy.

Sadly, it could be political genius. He has confidently (arrogantly) taken a position that would have out Toried the Tories. In UK politics, this rarely fails. It will not be long before the rebel MP's are made to look like being weak on a measure that "would have saved us all". Blair could well use this to his advantage, and I think he played it well (as deeply irritating that is to acknowledge). Its middle England politics, and its where Blair is at his most effective. You only have to look at the front page of the Sun today to see this in action.

It seems strange to me that the DUP, which is supposedly such an anti-terrorist party, would have thought that 90 days was excessive.

Yes, because only through the support of this measure can you truly prove yourself as being anti-terrorist