Fudge - or just keeping control?

As expected, the much heralded reform of draconian anti-terrorism measures introduced by Labour has been turned out to be a diluted form of present arrangements glorying under the title of Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures. Despite a spasm of earlier Lib Dems attempts at obfuscation, the signs foretold an outcome borne out of discontent but eventual capitulation to tory pressure. Civil liberties groups have been quick to point accusing fingers

Alex Deane of Big Brother Watch appeared on BBC News 24 this morning to question the role of Lord Carlile, accusing him and Lib Dems of being little more than “apologists” for a continuation of what Lord Macdonald described as a massive “over-reaction”. Meanwhile, Shami Chakrabarti, director of human rights group Liberty, said the government had "bottled it". She added, "Spin and semantics aside, control orders are retained and rebranded, if in a slightly lower-fat form”.

In a slightly desperate statement intended to appease his own party, Nick Clegg trotted out the appropriate sound-bites claiming that the new measures were a "proportionate response" and that control orders had seen a change in their "fundamental design". His aides had earlier been busy describing the new measures as a victory of sorts, inferring at the same time that the predicted compromise was simply one of the burdens that a leader had to bear at time of conflict. The general agreement from everyone else however, was that the only thing remotely Churchillian about the deputy PM is his tendency to nod and say “Oh yes” at regular intervals.