British parliamentary democracy is finally working properly again.
MPs have just rejected the proposal for 90 days’ detention without trial by 322 to 291. (They’re now voting on 28 days, which I still think is too much, but is a considerable improvement.)
The current count suggests 41 Labour MPs voted against the government. Sadly not yet the end of Tony Blair, but hopefully the beginning of the end.
UPDATE: The latest figure suggest there were 49 Labour rebels.
MPs then backed by 323 to 290 votes a Labour backbench MP’s motion to extend the detention time limit to 28 days, from the current 14 days.
That’s not a great result, but far, far better than the original.
Why? Well it is possible to imagine your normal life being suddenly stopped for 28 days, but despite the trauma it would be probably be possible to pick up more or less where you left off after that.
But after 90 days, if you were studying you’d have lost a year, if you had a mortgage you’d probably lose your house; your life would be, if not wrecked, then substantially wrenched off track. The government must not be allowed to do that to innocent people if it can’t even come up with a charge to be placed before a court.
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