Saturday 29 January 2011

AND TODAY'S U-TURN IS... TPIMS


We believe that the best way to combat terrorism is to prosecute terrorists, not give away hard won British freedoms. That is why we will: scrap control orders, which can use secret evidence to place people under house arrest (Liberal Democrat Manifesto 2010, page 94.)

Yet another U-turn today that leaves the Lib Dems looking stupid. Hello TPIMs. T
hat’s what the Tories are having instead of Control Orders, those nasty Labour things that the coalition (and the Lib Dems in particular) promised to abolish. But they ended up only abolishing the title. Well, at least they got rid of the curfew and replaced it with a ROS... a Required Overnight Stay, which is a kind of curfew with a warm cuddly, liberal, politically correct name.

And that is today’s U-Turn!

Sneaky Tories, though (today was clearly a good day to bury U-turns) they sneaked another U-turn out more or less on the same day. That’s the one where Caroline Spelman wanted to rake in some money for DEFRA by selling off all England’s forests and getting a cool £100 million for them. But she reckoned without the intervention of Boris Johnson’s sister, Rachel {and 85% of the population of England}. It seems that Clan Johnson are very active catalysts for U-turns, after he himself precipitated one over the changes to Housing Benefit. Anyway they are not now going to just flog off the trees to the highest bidder but are now going to have a consultation after which they will only sell the wood off the highest “nice” bidder.

So waiting for the favourite media catchphrase the U-turn is rather like waiting for a bus. You wait 13 years and then loads come along all at once, sometimes twice in one day.

27 comments:

  1. If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck then you've guessed it.
    Same with TPIMS a cosmetic change but still a quacking control order.

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  2. If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck then its obviously a pea hen well what do you expect
    from Cleggy aka Billy big Fecking liar.

    Yeah! Oi! Muslim terrorist put down that bag of dynamite yer under A Required Overnight Stay
    if you dont mind sir would you like to see the breakfast menu

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  3. Not entirely fair here Tris.

    I agree this isn't as much as I'd hoped, having read both coalition manifestoes.

    BUT there is SIGNIFICANT changes here, and we'd be foolish not to welcome them.

    For the first time, if your subject to a TPIM, you are informed what you are suspected of doing/committing. That is a big change since the darker days of New Labours Control Orders, where the subject was NOT told of what he was suspected of.

    Additionally, the detention time has been cut to just 14 days, from 24 - thats good surely? Again, higher than the EU average, but changes in the correct direction.

    Am I the only one who welcomes the TPIMs? They are a heck of a lot better than Control Orders and 24 days detention. Thats for sure.

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  4. Deano

    The Tory who is a softy on terrorist murderers of innocent people


    'you are informed what you are suspected of doing/committing.'

    Hello! sir we are informing you of suspecting you of committing terrorist offenses.

    Oh! well i will be more careful from now on

    Thats the idea sir


    Me im for suspected terrorists being detained in a 'BODY BAG' But then I'm for the people and against the criminal terrorists.unlike Deano

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  5. 14 days to waterboard them Dean! 3 days is better than 14, what is it with right wingers apart from straying into the wrong bed that believes everyone is more stupid than they are.

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  6. CH: what Tavish fails to mention when he lists the things that Labour did not do was that his Lib Dems were in coalition with Labour when they didn’t do these things!

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  7. QM: a turd by any other name is still a turd! I thought that the coalition was going to do away with all this politically correct PR media speak. Ah well another U-turn then!

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  8. Mr mixedpickle yea “required overnight stay” what a ridiculous laugh, these people really must think we zip up the back!

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  9. Dean... Not me this time old thing. It was Munguin making an excursion from his penthouse office suite who put quill to parchment over this one.... (Imagine his surprise when he saw the computer. Darned near sacked everyone on the staff. He thought we were watching the tv!!)

    I'm inclined though to think that QM pretty much has it sewn up here.

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  10. Dean: not tris err me! Despite a bit of tinkering around the edges they are still Control Orders and curfews. Hardly a great leap forward, feels a lot more like a U-turn.

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  11. I agree that it is not the great leap forward everyone hoped for (myself included) - but the movement is significant nonetheless and in the correct direction too.

    Unlike Niko, I like to inform people of the crimes they are suspected of, but over in Labour land it is different I suppose.

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  12. Cynical,

    24 to 14 is significant impovement on our civil liberties. I agree with you that it is still greater than I would have liked (see my response related to the EU average, which is MASSIVELY lower).

    But I won't pretend that this is a real improvement, one which would NOT have been made had New Labour clung to power.

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  13. sorry, that should read less not greater!

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  14. Dean it might be a good idea not to dress things up as a great leap forward in manifestos etc then fudge the issue, tinker about the edges and dress it up in the usual load of old Tory flim-flam flannel. That just make us all snigger behind our hands at the latest coalition U-turn, makes the government look stupider than it already does!

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  15. Dean a little is not a lot that was promised, remember manifesto U turns which the unionist keep shouting at the SNP wrongly. Your party by allowing this perjury to continue should be joining Tommy to bring some justice to this farce of a so called democracy we are saddled with. Time to invite some Egyptians when they have finished Mubarak who has been backed by the US and the UK.

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  16. CH I think the Egyptians, the Tunisians and the Yemenis have great courage. They are effecting real change in their countries. I really hope it will be for the better.

    I'm sure that Obama, Merkel, Sarkosy and Camclegg's opinions are not really needed... mostly because it really has sod all to do with them.

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  17. Mr Mxyzptlk - What a load of drivel you spout. The terrorist murderers of innocent people you talk about are the very party and ex-government you support - Blair and the Labour party along with Bush and his cronies in the US.

    Wonder why we haven't had an independent inquiry into the 7/7 London Bombings then - Of course Labour made sure there wasn't one.

    Wonder why there are so many people in the US and beyond calling for a new totally indpendent inquiry into 911 - because all the evidence points to the US government themselves.

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  18. Not to mention the fact Billy, that the UK under Blair the Butcher, bombed Baghdad and killed and maimed more people that 30 9/11s and 7/7s...
    ...All on the strength of a made up dossier, fixed photos and a student's PhD thesis that was 10 bloody years out of date, whilst refusing to take the advice of their weapons inspectors.

    Because Mr Bush wanted to. What does that make us?

    Oh and did we have any say before we went to war? Thought not.

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  19. Oh! Dear Billy joins the the conspirati and UFO spotters, walls have ears and voices too Billy hears them late at night whispering about him

    yes the world is a very frightening place Aghh!

    MI6..7..8..and 9 are watching Billy they have a camera pointing at him know which i have hacked into and can see...........

    Billy its about time you changed yer unerpants yer dirty devil.

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  20. Thanks, Billy and Tris, for saving me from having to reply to Niko. Not that it will have any effect on a blinkered Labourite - with only occasional insight into their corruption and Iain Gray's pathetic attempt to be a leader of men and women, I hastily add.

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  21. Brownlie

    Iain Gray may or may not be a pathetic leader of 'ALL' the Scottish people but we are destined to find out when Labour smash the snp at the next election.


    Labour 53%

    snp 21%

    http://today.yougov.co.uk/sites/today.yougov.co.uk/files/YG-Archives-Pol-ST-results-28-300111.pdf

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  22. Three in hospital as police use pepper spray at UKuncut protest

    Tweeter Linda Marric said:
    Way to go Cameron! CS gas being used on peaceful protesters. Is thus [sic] f**king Cairo?

    Obviously they have been taking lessons from Mubarak.

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  23. Shame on the English police.

    As I've said elsewhere I've no confidence in the police on either side of the border. The ones I've met are a bunch of thugs with manners to match. Not in the least bit helpful, they seem unprepared to put themselves out for anyone.

    They really have to keep people on side. They police (and have policing privilege) with our consent.

    They need to remember that. Too busy pepper spraying people to bother investigating Rupert Murdoch. Calling them pigs is an insult to porkers...

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  24. tris it gets 'better' Pepper spray update: the law is just for plebs

    The reason why police are exempt, pointed out by an anonymous commenter, is that unless specifically stated, Acts of Parliament do not apply to the Crown.

    The Firearms Act itself identifies police officers, their staff, and military servicepeople as “servants of the Crown.” That police, placed in a position of authority over us, are not subject to the same laws as the rest of us should be intolerable.


    Anyone for democracy?

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  25. What's that then?

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