Speechless with admiration. This man should be an MP

No need for Peter Hain, here's Cllr Gareth Davies defending the indefensible:

It used to be an article of faith on the left that judges were untrustworthy, their impartiality a cloak for dangerously whimsical decisions that could barely be distinguished from prejudiced conservatism.

Now we have people who claim to be of the Left demanding that the Home Secretary not be trusted with the power to sign control orders, but that such power should rest with those bastions of independence, the judiciary.

I didn't like judicial activism when Lord Denning was practising it in pursuit of his vision of England, and the English common law; the self same activism is not much more acceptable when practiced by the likes of Lord Hoffman.

Lord Hoffman? Oh, that Lord Hoffman:

The real threat to the life of the nation, in the sense of people living in accordance with its traditional laws and political values, comes not from terrorism but from laws like these.

Davies has done it. He's sitting up there in Blythe ("just north of Newcastle upon Tyne in the picturesque Northumberland countryside") and thinking that, because even Tories and Law Lords have balked at granting the Home Secretary the sort of powers swivelly-eyed dictators get sweaty palms over - it's obviously all part of a reactionary plot to undermine a noble, reforming government. For bonus points, he even manages to accuse the left of a "knee-jerk" anti-Labourism whilst he's at it.

Craven power-worship, all presented as defending socialist values. He's ideal front-bench material.