The UK Anti-Terrorism Act is an assault on freedom

We are told every day that we live in dangerous times. No doubt it is true. But the test of beliefs and principles comes, not in plateaus of peace, but rather when we face great challenges. It is then that it is most important we preserve our defining ideals, for these are the things that differentiate us from those that threaten us - and are being suborned to the security agenda. We have allowed ourselves to be gulled into giving up our way of life.

“C” was imprisoned for three years. He was never told why he was detained. He was not told why he was released.

He may be a very dangerous man. But the point of democratic life is, or should be, that every man is protected from the state by the rule of law. Every man is free until proven by the legal system to deserve punishment. That these men come from other countries changes that not one bit, for their imprisonment has occurred here, where such rules have been universal since time immemorial.

The Government’s current defence of their position is that these individuals are free to leave the country if they wish; they remain in the UK by their own choice. One might point out that what awaits them in their home countries must be rather terrible if they’d rather stay in Belmarsh Prison than return there. But the discussion is about to become redundant, as the Government is about to make arbitrary detention laws apply to citizens of this country as well as those here from abroad.

The Government attempted to portray “C’s” release as evidence of its fairness and of due process. Home Office Minister Hazel Blears MP said it demonstrated that “it’s not the case that the Home Secretary locks someone up and throws away the key”.

She is right, of course. He happened to have kept the key this time.