Terrorist Asset-Freezing (Temporary Provisions) Bill

Today we are discussing what is, in fact, the main purpose of being a Member of Parliament—that is, how the citizen is protected. The danger is that all necessary terrorism legislation can easily be the means by which citizens' freedoms are eroded. Over the past 250 years of legislation, the moments of most danger to the citizens have been those when we became most aware of the danger to the nation. That is a natural link. It is extremely difficult when we face the realities of terrorism to be as careful as we ought to be about the realities of individual freedom. Yet we are fighting terrorism in order to defend that freedom. That balance is therefore essential in the defence of freedom. We are not putting the one against the other: they are both part of the same effort. That is why I would suggest to the Government that they have done themselves a disfavour by not using the House of Commons as the mechanism by which they ensure that that balance is achieved. The Government have spoken as if, somehow, using secondary legislation—or, indeed, no legislation at all—in order to carry through their requirements has been a necessary consequence of the terrorist threat. In fact, it should be the other way round: the terrorist threat should lead the Government to come to the House of Commons to debate the issues, to ensure that what they do can then be seen as proportionate and just. That ought to be true in the highest way, but I suggest that it also needs to be true in a rather lower way. Two of my colleagues who have spoken are lawyers. I am not a lawyer. I do not much like the way the courts make law. Law ought to be made here, but if we make the law badly here, we will encourage judges in their increasing desire to make law themselves. Faced with bad law, I understand the anger, which is the only way I can refer to the language used by the Supreme Court—a phrase I dislike entirely. I understand the anger of those judges, who saw that what they were dealing with was wholly contrary to their understanding of the demands of the common law. There is therefore a reason not only for the Government to take Parliament seriously in making such judgments for the bigger scene, but to ensure that the distinction between the purposes of the courts and the nature of Parliament is continued and supported, which is the other issue. We also have to look carefully at the result of what we are doing today. I recently saw this connection in a wholly different way, but I have seen how, when organs of government get the bit between their teeth, it is possible to act most unjustly in respect of individuals. What I have seen has seared my view, so I say this to the Exchequer Secretary, who is going to sum up this debate. One has to recognise that many of the people involved are at least innocent enough never to be charged. The figures are interesting, are they not? Of some 51 cases, 18 have been reviewed and dropped. The Treasury has suggested that that is a compliment to its review procedure, but one could think that it was a statement about the danger of the system, because it might be that those people should never have been on the list at all and that it is not the review procedure that should be praised, but the original decision that should be criticised.