Prime minister Tony Blair says it beggars belief that members of his party would be considering to rebel against the government in the parliamentary vote on anti-terror legislation.
The Guardian: Anti-terror rebels ‘beggar belief’, says Blair
Tony Blair today used the Labour party’s conference platform to attack rebel MPs who plan to derail the government’s anti-terrorism legislation ahead of a raft of key votes due to take place in parliament next week.
Mr Blair attacked dissenters in the party, saying that it “beggars belief” that “some of our own” would try and remove references to glorification of terrorism in the parliamentary bill now making its way through parliament.
“It simply beggars belief that we send such a signal at such a time,” he told delegates. “And I profoundly disagree with the view of those who want to water down the laws against terrorism that these laws infringe our civil liberties. Yes, freedom of speech is an ancient British liberty. But it should be exercised with responsibility because if it isn’t, another ancient liberty – the right to life – is put at risk.”
I wrote briefly about the issue of the opposition to the anti-terror legislation when writing about the jailing of Abu Hamza. Frankly I think it ‘beggars belief’ that a Labour government would be pushing to introduce even more draconian laws than we currently have and infringing people’s civil liberties all in their ‘war on terror’.
This is the role of parliament isn’t it to debate proposed legislation and weigh the benefits against the costs. Is new legislation really necessary? Are we at far greater risk than we were during the height of the IRA’s campaigns of violence?
