LINES TO TAKE

In a previous life, I worked for the Government in a freelance capacity. Briefing Ministers on regional intelligence, writing press releases and mugging up on the "lines to take" when dealing with the media. Most of the Civil Servants I worked with were not party political. Governments came and went but they stayed in post. Not so me. Shortly before the 2005 election, the purdah period started. And I never went back. Whether or not MI5 sussed out my left-wing activities (or more prosaically I suspect the budgets were cut) I have never been clear on. Anyway, the constraints were lifted and I was free to engage in as much political activity as I wanted to.
I have been in the Labour Party for 30 years. In that time, my views have ebbed and flowed and changed with the times. As many of my comrades know, I even voted for Blair in 1994 to get rid of the Tories. In 1975, as a schoolgirl, I wore anti-Common Market stickers. Today, I accept the EU as a force for good. But not, necessarily, the new Constitution ( whatever they want to call it that is what it is).In other words, whatever I think is on an issue by issue basis. So, in response to a nasty poster yesterday, no, I do not parrot any " line." I just happen to think the Labour Left has more answers than New Labour. In 2002, I seconded a Branch resolution on re-nationalisation of the railways. In 2003, I marched with hundreds of thousands of others over Iraq.I have been a trade unionist (NUJ) for 23 years.
One of the things I I fundamentally care about is that people are treated with respect and that this Government - Labour Government - does not pander to right-wing prejudice.
Gordon Brown is in many respects a vast improvement on Tony Blair. But his current pandering to the Daily Mail agenda does him no credit whatsoever. Extending the time limits on internment ( because that's what we are talking about here) should not be a catch-all answer to whichever threat the nation is facing.There are other ways of countering such threats and demonising a particular section of society will not help secure the safety of any of us. As The Guardian says today in its Leader column: "Facing a far graver threat to the nation than that posed today by militant Islamism, Winston Churchill remained clear that internment was an evil that should not be lightly indulged. He said in 1943: "The power of the executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law ... is in the highest degree odious, and the foundation of all totalitarian government."