Hayman strikes!
Much talk of the government supposedly backing off on 42 days. As the Lords are quite clearly not going to pass the bill in any shape or form, the only way to get it through would be to use the parliament act; but using the PA, especially as it would breach all the precedents of using the PA, including the Salisbury convention, would indeed probably be "political suicide" as advisers have supposedly briefed.
How then to step back from the brink without being too embarrassed in the process? Perhaps they'll take the advise of Andy Hayman, formerly chief anti-terrorism officer:
Hayman of course along with his former acolytes in the Met is still deeply wedded to absolutely any extension, such is the pressing need for more time. Hayman goes on to detail his unerring support for 90 days, when such "bureaucratic, convoluted and unworkable" conditions were not part of the bill, which would have just seen a judge authorise continued detention as is currently the case. Hayman's real problem with 42 days is not the time limit, but that the police cannot just waltz into a court-room and sweet-talk a judge with how he'll be named and shamed in the tabloids should the man he releases go on to bomb somewhere.
Accountability though has never been Hayman's strong point. He was the officer in charge of "Operation Helios", the witch-hunt against Ali Dizaei which cost millions of pounds and even more when Dizaei sued for discrimination. He was the person most heavily criticised by the IPCC after they established that he told one story to crime reporters on the day Jean Charles de Menezes was executed and another later to the Met's management committee, briefing that they should be saying de Menezes was one of the bombers, even if it turned out he wasn't, when he already knew that he wasn't. He was in charge of the Forest Gate raid, and not satisfied with shooting one of the Koyair brothers, his officers commenced a smear campaign similar to that ran against de Menezes. He resigned last December after allegations that he had ran up a Met credit card bill of £15,000, as well as taking a female officer on foreign trips with him. One has to wonder if his fee for the Times article will be going towards his paying off of that account.
With their plans not fit for purpose currently, the government will probably have to admit defeat this year. There's nothing stop them however from trying again in the next session, or putting in their manifesto, even if the chances of Labour winning that election are slight to say the least. Don't however completely rule out the Conservatives swiftly adopting 42 days as their own however, especially should there be another attack, of significant magnitude or not. George Osborne and Michael Gove had to be convinced of the benefits of opposing it this time round, and in government will be just as obsessed with handing over power to the police as Labour have been.
How then to step back from the brink without being too embarrassed in the process? Perhaps they'll take the advise of Andy Hayman, formerly chief anti-terrorism officer:
But the Government's current proposals are not fit for purpose: they are bureaucratic, convoluted and unworkable. The draftsman's pen has introduced so many hoops to be jumped through that a police case for detaining a terror suspect will become part of the political game.
Hayman of course along with his former acolytes in the Met is still deeply wedded to absolutely any extension, such is the pressing need for more time. Hayman goes on to detail his unerring support for 90 days, when such "bureaucratic, convoluted and unworkable" conditions were not part of the bill, which would have just seen a judge authorise continued detention as is currently the case. Hayman's real problem with 42 days is not the time limit, but that the police cannot just waltz into a court-room and sweet-talk a judge with how he'll be named and shamed in the tabloids should the man he releases go on to bomb somewhere.
Accountability though has never been Hayman's strong point. He was the officer in charge of "Operation Helios", the witch-hunt against Ali Dizaei which cost millions of pounds and even more when Dizaei sued for discrimination. He was the person most heavily criticised by the IPCC after they established that he told one story to crime reporters on the day Jean Charles de Menezes was executed and another later to the Met's management committee, briefing that they should be saying de Menezes was one of the bombers, even if it turned out he wasn't, when he already knew that he wasn't. He was in charge of the Forest Gate raid, and not satisfied with shooting one of the Koyair brothers, his officers commenced a smear campaign similar to that ran against de Menezes. He resigned last December after allegations that he had ran up a Met credit card bill of £15,000, as well as taking a female officer on foreign trips with him. One has to wonder if his fee for the Times article will be going towards his paying off of that account.
With their plans not fit for purpose currently, the government will probably have to admit defeat this year. There's nothing stop them however from trying again in the next session, or putting in their manifesto, even if the chances of Labour winning that election are slight to say the least. Don't however completely rule out the Conservatives swiftly adopting 42 days as their own however, especially should there be another attack, of significant magnitude or not. George Osborne and Michael Gove had to be convinced of the benefits of opposing it this time round, and in government will be just as obsessed with handing over power to the police as Labour have been.
Labels: 42 days, Andy Hayman, politics, terror, terror laws
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