The Times reported that the attempt would be dropped due to opposition from the House of Lords, but later the government issued a statement saying they were pressing ahead with trying to pass the legislation.

The government will probably try and force it through next year. Septic Isle speculates the Tories may pick it up as part of their push to win the next general election.

Unsurprisingly, the usual set of bigots that populate Comment is free are happy to suggest Sabir deserved to be arrested simply because of his name.

Aspects of my life that would have been seen as commendable in others were suddenly viewed as suspect in my case for no apparent reason other than my religious and ethnic background. I was guilty of being that strangest of creatures: a Muslim who reads; who studied engineering yet writes about Bob Dylan; was a vocal opponent of the Iraq war yet owns all of Christopher Hitchens’ writings; admires Terry Eagleton yet defends Martin Amis; interviews Kazuo Ishiguro, listens to Leonard Cohen, goes to Radiohead concerts, all of which became the subject of rather bizarre questioning.

Labour won by 9 votes, with 36 Labour MPs rebelling (I long gave up hope that Labour MPs would develop a backbone; although I am glad my MP voted against). The nine votes all came from the Democratic Unionists.

Kurshid Ahmed also had an article at Comment is free defending his decision to support the government (ignore the fact he tries to ‘yes’ and ‘no’ to the proposals at the same time).

It was still a stupid decision by the BMF to support the government.

The House of Lords, a supposed relic from yesteryear, must now once again defend our fudamental rights.

The government has failed to convince members of its own Cabinet, some of its own MPs, the Opposition, senior police offers, the former Attorney General, a House of Commons select committee on human rights, the government’s own human rights watchdog, the country’s leading public prosecutor, MI5; even the Home Secretary is said to hold doubts (privately) about the policy she is publically advocating. This is all before we consider the views of The Usual Suspects.

But ignore all that; Kurshid Ahmad has been reassured and that makes everything alright.

Stupid.

Curiously, Ahmad’s attempt to link the plans to extend the limit to 42 days sound much like the spin the government and its loyalists are putting out. Does anyone know if these quotes lifted from a press release or taken from an interview with Ahmad?