News comes out today, as it seems to be most days now as Brown tries his hardest to save his career, that Brown is definitely still sticking to his terror plan, as if we didn't bloody well know.

Over at Harry's Place the response to this news is that they of course think that it's not as bad as people are making out...and by the way it isn't as bad as other awful legislation so what are we complaining about, ungrateful souls that we are?

Why not just oppose the legislation as it is, rather than misrepresenting it? The judicial and parliamentary oversight protect people from just being locked up for 42 days for no reason. Why don't critics acknowledge this?

Remember for those that feel liberal, or even left, and actually understand the sensitivity of this issue the you can join many facets of the campaign against the 42 day detenton laws...most of them detailed on Liberal Conspiracy for you to view under "Not a day longer" on the right!

First of all, let me say that it's been a pain being away, but starting a new job and the culture shock that that a busy working life has brought has meant a re-evaluation of my time. Me and Gavin are discussing the future for Politalks, but for now it's on the back burner so that I can have time to actually blog properly again.

And so here I come back with news of even more erosion of civil liberties on the horizon! Yes it seems that either ministers in this government are happy to stare the impending defeat of their rule at the next general election down til the very last, desperate and crushing end, or they are so incompetent they've not yet let their minions know that stories about how they might want to spy on every single phone call and email we make could be a little bit of a vote loser.

So ID Cards are back on the agenda again now and actually threaten to be more confusing a policy than the ratification of the EU treaty. The time scales are slipping further and further, ambiguity is rife over the compulsion that may exist, and the politicians are still woefully clueless about the lack of integrity the system will inherently have.

The political landscape has been undeniably altered since the attacks in New York on September the 11th, and to some degree the 7th of July bombings in London. Aside from the IRA attacks in the UK (conveniently forgotten in modern rhetoric) the western world had not seen anything like what happened in 2001, at least that's what we say to ourselves. I for one wonder just how true, or at least relevant, that is...

News today is about Jacqui Smith being prepared to accept an amendment being tabled by a fellow Labour MP to move the time limit that parliament has to decide on a person being held for more than 28 days from 30 to 10. The aim, apparently, is to move the debate on from "arbitrary" numbers. The trouble is that you can't stop delays over arbitrary figures by including MORE arbitrary figures!

Politalks 4 is now up! This week we look at terrorism and how torture fits in with that particular problem, in particular George Bush's views on waterboarding. There is also a look at interesting ideas such as soldiers becoming teachers and frankly bizarre educational policy. The big stuff is at the end though, where we let those of you out of the loop know who the sexiest MP of them all is, afraid we have no news on what they'll be wearing to the ball. Video below, transcript even further down, right at the bottom we even have a roundup of the links we took in to consideration when making this

Not work safe unless you have headphones, enjoy!

Finally in this trilogy of posts on the issue of poor and sometimes frightening governance by Labour, and in this case to a degree parliament as a governing body, I cover the now well trodden subject of MPs and just how much power the government should be giving them. In particular this post is spurred on by the recent news about bugging MPs, but stems from the wording of anti-terror legislation on several counts, the debacle over police pay and partly how the idea of electoral reform has been dealt with.

Let's first look at the most recent furore, that of bugging MPs...

I'm trying something new here, not sure if it's going to work as well as intended but here it is. Read more for the transcript of this movie.

At least this is what he might have well said when extending the following comment...

Britain technically is a Christian country with many secular features. It’s those two things. It’s not anything else. If you expect that you would have the same response to your faith needs in Britain as would happen within a Muslim or Islamic country, [you] would be disappointed

This is in reference, I assume, to the idea that universities that allow Muslim students to attend religious meetings and prayer should be reporting suspicious activity and keeping checks on them. Effectively we have moved no further away from spying on our students than we were one year ago.