The conservativehome.com blog

The Tories and civil liberties

A YouGov poll for this morning’s Telegraph confirms the willingness of the British people to restrict civil liberties in the war on terror.

70% said “yes, it may sometimes be necessary” to restrict the civil liberties of suspected terrorists even though there is not enough usable evidence to charge and convict them.

81% supported taking action against people who have not yet done anything but the intelligence agencies believe may be planning an act of terrorism.

The British people’s willingness to restrict liberties in the war on terror may explain the fact that 68% rate the Government as doing a “very good” or “fairly good” job in dealing with the danger of terrorist acts.

Remembering the dead

I remember visiting the US Embassy in London after 9/11 and writing a message of solidarity to the American people. Tens of thousands did the same. Millions offered prayers. Today the world is mourning for Britain's losses. The Mayor of Paris declared that we are all Londoners. Above is Dick Cheney's brief message within a book of condolences at Britain's Washington Embassy.

Is Britain a weak link in the war on terror?

In an article for the New York Times, security expert Peter Bergen suggests that Britain is a weak link in the war on terror.

Bergen lists a number of British citizens – from Richard Reid, ‘the shoe bomber’ to suicide bombers against Israel – who have been involved in terrorism.

“Why have so many of these terrorists come from Britain?” asks Bergen, and answers:

”Many British Muslims are young and poorly integrated into society and therefore vulnerable to extremism. In fact, Muslims have the youngest age profile of any religious group in Britain; around a third are under the age of 16. The unemployment rate among British Muslims runs almost 10 percentage points above the national average of about 5 percent. In the case of 16- to 24-year-old Muslim men, the unemployment rate is 22 percent. Not surprisingly, polls of British Muslims show a considerable sense of anger. Eight out of 10 believe that the war on terrorism is a war on Islam, while a poll conducted last year, under the auspices of the Guardian newspaper, found a surprising 13 percent who said that further attacks by Al Qaeda or a similar organization on the United States would be justified. One rap video that surfaced in Britain last year called "Dirty Kuffar" had lyrics that included the following verse: "O.B.L. [bin Laden] pulled me like a shining star! Like the way we destroyed them two towers, ha-ha!"

Terrorists have filled the shoes of pranksters

Yesterday morning - 90 minutes before the first bomb struck London - Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair was telling Radio 4 listeners that his force was seen as the ‘envy of the policing world in relation to counter-terrorism’. The terrorists have final responsibility for yesterday’s attacks but Sir Ian’s boast was not just untimely – it was ill-founded.

We all know that London is not as secure as it should be. We can all remember when Tony Blair was struck by purple powder during Prime Minister’s Question Time, then how hunt protestors successfully invaded the Commons chamber and how a rather plump Batman breached security at Buckingham Palace. It was only a matter of time before terrorists stepped into the shoes of pranksters.

Melanie Phillips uses her platform in today’s Daily Mail to highlight the many failures of British security.

7/7

7/7 came a long time after 9/11. During that time Britain and western nations have grown increasingly complacent. That complacency has been encouraged by the many talking heads who suggested that the threat of terror was exaggerated. The BBC even produced a whole series dedicated to what it called the politics of fear. The series suggested that politicians were concocting nightmarish threats with which to scare voters.

Today we woke up to the reality of the terrorist threat. At least 37 people died in the terrorist attacks on London. Sadly, the number of fatalities is certain to rise. That number is the mask to heart-rending stories of children who will never see their fathers again and others who have lost daughters, husbands and brothers. Our prayers are with those who mourn tonight.

But do we appreciate – even now – the seriousness of the terrorist threat?

I believe...

Do you remember Michael Howard’s January 2004 statement of beliefs? They were criticised at the time for their motherhood-and-apple-pie character but they did amount to an aborted CCO attempt to embrace positive politics. I recently came across a Canadian ex-blogger’s beliefs statement and I thought I’d try one of my own. I’ve outlined at least one belief for each of conservativehome.com’s main ten themes:

The Sun's pot-ty support for Labour

This morning's Sun* makes an excited attack on the LibDems:

"Vote for the Lib Dems on Thursday and you could be signing a young person's death warrant. They want to legalise cannabis and encourage users to grow it at home. They also want to stop jailing addicts for possessing heroin, crack, cocaine and ecstasy — all drugs which can be lethal.

What sort of baffling message will that send to young people? Labour tried to take a more liberal approach to cannabis but stopped its plans when it found evidence of a sharp rise in the use of hard drugs.

A Lib Dem government, should that nightmare ever come true, would signal that Britain is a haven for criminal gangs dealing in drugs."

The Sun's attack on the LibDems - the most left-wing and libertine party in this election - is well-founded. The LibDems' soft approach to drugs does endanger young people. It fits with their other left-wing policies like giving prisoners the vote and increasing taxation.

The extraordinary hypocrisy of The Sun is that a voter worried about drugs should vote Labour.