The liberty versus security debate has returned to Westminster, and it’s just like old times. David Davis is having great fun beating up the government, except this time it’s a Tory-led one. And as so often, Davis has a point. Much rot is spoken in the name of ‘national security,’ which can be used by the right as ‘health and safety’ is used by the left: a verbal trump card, to win any debate and justify any policy. So it has proved with this bun fight over the snooping powers about to go through parliament. It has split the coalition, and even the Tory party. In my Telegraph column today, I try to work out what’s going on.
First, what isn’t going on: the idea that MI5 or MI6 want secret trials, or to read all our emails, is bonkers. Our spooks are famously nervy about recommending any policy: they didn’t, for example, want 90-day detention even though Tony Blair hinted otherwise.
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