Gordon Bennett

Having mentioned his intro, it seems fitting to mention Alan Bennett's last entry to his diary, which I read today. David Blunkett has just resigned.

"...anyone hounded by the newspapers has my sympathy, even though in Blunkett's case the leaders of the pack were the very papers he courted. Scarcely had he cleared his desk when the judges in the Lords condemn the indefinite detention of foreign nationals as unlawful, a judgement which, it's to be hoped, signals some sort of turning of the tide. Santa may call at Belmarsh if not at Guantanamo Bay."

The entry is dated 16 December 2004. Less than 11 months later, Blunkett has resigned again, and Blair et al are trying to force though yet more anti-terror legislation. Under existing powers, a man can be arrested for heckling the Foreign Secretary at the Labour Party Conference, and bankers can be extradited to the US for trial without production of evidence (though not vice versa). The latest proposals, apart from locking people up for 90 days without charge, during which time they could lose their job, house etc., also outlaw the glorification of terrorism and the dissemination of information encouraging terrorism ("conduct which gives encouragement to the commission, preparation or instigation of such acts, or which is intended to do so" - nice use of "or"). University libraries are worried whether they need to purge certain chemistry books, or those which may be sympathetic to Guy Fawkes.

Would the tide were turning, Alan. What we have here are the early days of an extreme proxigean spring tide (google it yourself).