Has the penny finally dropped on 42 days ?

Several newspapers suggest today that the government may have finally realised that detention without charge for 42 days should be dropped.

Not because they have recognised that it's a bad idea, but because ministers have accepted that there is "not a cat in hell's chance" of getting it through the House of Lords.

I hope this report is correct, not because I've gone soft on terror, but because locking people up for that length of time without charge would be actively counterproductive. Internment was the best recruiting sergeant the IRA ever had.

It might be a different matter if the authorities responsible for bringing prosecutions or the majority of security experts thought that further increases in the time people can be held awaiting charge was necessary or helpful. But in fact the current DPP, the former Attorney general and Lord Chancellor under Blair, and Dame Manningham-Buller are among those who oppose it.

A bad idea whose time has come and gone.

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