[Bazf]

Doesn't help when the prime ministers wife is a bleeding heart liberal...

Tony Blair has been embarrassed by remarks by his lawyer wife Cherie, who warned ministers against undermining civil liberties by rushing through anti-terror laws. Her remarks in a speech in Malaysia came only hours after the Prime Minister promised to tighten anti-terrorist legislation in the wake of the London bombings and he urged the opposition parties not to block them on the grounds that they would restrict traditional freedoms.

Mr Blair said: "Considerations of national security have to come before civil liberties, no matter how important those civil liberties are."

Mrs Blair, in her speech, praised a "landmark ruling" by the law lords last December against the provision in the Government's Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act allowing terrorist suspects to be locked up indefinitely. On the London bombings, she said: "Nothing I could say here could possibly be construed as making light of these horrific acts of violence, or of the responsibility imposed on the UK and other governments to keep the public safe, or of the difficult and dangerous task performed by the police and intelligence services.
"But at the same time, it is all too easy for us to respond to such terror in a way which undermines commitment to our most deeply held values and convictions and which cheapens our right to call ourselves a civilised nation."