Strike three?

In November last year we commented on how internal tensions within the coalition had prompted reported fears of a political car crash over control orders. Since then it is becoming increasing apparent that Cameron has his foot firmly on the brake and that Clegg is backpedalling like a good ‘un on yet another election pledge.

The deputy PM’s recent speech in which he stated that a settlement would be shaped “according to the needs of national security, and not through a political prism”, is a clear admission as you can get that Lib Dem ministers will be signing up to re-packaged and slightly diluted regulations which allows the Home Secretary to repeatedly restrict the individual freedoms of terror suspects. And as we know, it‘s ministers that make a parliamentary majority.

Whilst the smiling leaders issued concessionary statements, their aides besieged journalists with a succession of briefings and counter-briefings describing how Cameron, Clegg or Teresa May were all “winning” their respective battles. Just who this was supposed to convince is anyone’s guess. Given the confusion however, we can understand that the Freedom Central spin-site, in publishing progress on sixty-seven Lib Dem manifesto pledges, sensibly left out any reference to the commitment on page 94 (Your Say) to “Scrap control orders, which can use secret evidence to place people under house arrest”.