It was a 42 days special, with Brown referring five times to the advice of the “security services.” On Monday a CoffeeHouser named “Smiley”, claiming to be from MI5, said the Service has never offered any advice in public or private, and added that the phrase “security services” was devised by Blair to obscure this point. A hoax comment, I thought, but intriguingly the head of MI5 issued a statement later in strikingly similar language. My point: MI5 doesn’t arrest or detain anyone, is stridently neutral on this, and it is disingenuous of Brown to hint otherwise.
But Cameron was on simply superb form, deriding Brown for quoting comments on ConservativeHome website. Yes it’s popular to lock people up, he said, but the job of parliament is to do what is right. Tory benches roared, and Labour sat like waxworks.
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