Three Thousand Versts of Loneliness

Arise Lord Reginald of Empey!  It's hardly an earth shattering surprise , but the news has been confirmed that Sir Reg will be elevated to a peerage.  Let this be the first blog to congratulate him on reaching Westminster at long last.   O'Neill points out that he will sit as a Conservative and no doubt he will be a useful addition to the Tory benches. Although Unionist Lite is correct that Empey's stewardship of UCUNF wasn't sufficiently brave, I still think he deserves huge credit for taking radical steps to revitalise Northern Irish unionism.  Two cheers for Lord Reg! Thanks to the anonymous commenter below who points out that Alistair Cooke , who taught at Queen's University Belfast, will also become a Conservative Lord.  

Conservative Home is canvassing suggestions for new Lords , to be created if government changes any time soon. Michael Howard is a popular suggestion but Ulster Tory wants Reg Empey promoted from Knight to Lord. An interesting idea, although Sir Reg might prefer to get to Westminster as an MP. In which case East Belfast might not be the most fruitful hunting ground.

The Times is reporting that Gordon Brown will decline to use the Parliament Act to force the Terrorism Bill into law, should the House of Lords return its anticipated rejection of the legislation ( H/T Tom Griffin on Our Kingdom ). The bill returns to the Lords this week and, if the Times is correct, then defeat would spell the end of forty two day pre-charge detention, after it passed the House of Commons by nine votes, humiliatingly grovelled from the DUP. As the paper observes, the measures have been strongly criticised by senior security figures. Andy Hayman, former Assistant Commissioner for Special Operations at Scotland Yard, is the latest to question the efficacy of the proposed legislation. His objections centre on the practicalities of seeking to detain a suspect for 42 days. Baroness Manningham-Buller, former director of MI5, argued the case against 42 day detention both on grounds of practicality and principle. If this story is proved correct, not only will Gordon Bro...

Whatever the exact motives for David Davis’ resignation from parliament, his actions will result in a thorough national debate being instigated on the importance of civil liberties to the United Kingdom. Gordon Brown’s claim that the public support his controversial 42 day pre-charge detention measure will be subjected to forensic scrutiny because Davis is intent on placing that specific debate within a broader context. This broader context will involve examining how highly British people value freedom as a central tenet of their state’s governance, and whether those foundational freedoms have been eroded incrementally to the extent that the ethos of our Kingdom has been undermined. If Davis’ narrative of erosion will prove ultimately convincing remains to be seen, but whether the British people decide that they are happy to cede certain freedoms in order to feel safer, or whether they agree with Davis that the pretext of security is being employed to bolster an ever more intrusive ...