If 42 days is bad, 90 must have been worse

There will be no profiles in courage written about those people who were happy to be part of a government that was pushing aggressively for 90 days but–now that they are out of power—like to boast about their opposition to 42 days. Paul Waugh, whose blog is rapidly becoming an essential read, reports on how one of these cowardly converts found himself rejected by those he imagined would be his new friends:

A witness reports that as [Charles Clarke] appeared on the Commons terrace yesterday, Clarke was loudly denouncing the anti-terror proposals as one of the most badly drafted pieces of legislation by any Government. Unfortunately serial Labour rebel Lynne Jones couldn’t bear it. She shot back that Clarke was the man who had pushed for not 42 days but 90 days when he was at the Home Office. What Alan Bennett would call “a bit of a to-do” ensued.