Charles Clarke and (muffled laughter) human rights

The BBC:

Charles Clarke's plans to allow judges to detain terror suspects without trial may still breach human rights laws, a committee of MPs and peers has warned.

The Joint Committee on Human Rights says changes to the Prevention of Terror Bill may not go far enough...

The "concession" the government made to the bleeding-heart liberal do-gooders in the Tory Party actually isn't:

And former law lord Lord Ackner warned that the judiciary had profound misgivings about the measures.

He said it was clear from the drafting of the bill that the defendant was not to be told about the case against him or the basis of the decision.

"It sounds so much better to say 'we'll leave it to the judge', but if you leave it to the judge without his being able to exercise the obligations of due process, you are not leaving it to the judge at all," he told BBC Radio 4's The World at One.

And, as if to indicate the lunacies of the war on terror, we have the opposition vigorously opposing everything the bill does but supporting it anyway:

The Tories have said they will back the bill, but shadow home secretary David Davis expressed reservations.

"It is simply wrong under British law, British tradition, British freedom and British justice," he said.

Three cheers for the Mother of Parliaments and the fount of democracy.