This week's effusion of green ink
Dear David Howarth,

Please do what you can to stop any increases in the power of the police to detain people without charging them.

I understand that the police face many difficulties, but we must not allow them to use those difficulties as excuses for reducing civil liberties. The recent cases of Daniel Jean Charles de Menezes, of Abdul Kahar and Abdul Koyar, of the Edinburgh "Hogmanay bombers", and the Manchester "Old Trafford bombers" show that the police do fairly regularly mistake innocent people for terrorists. The more powers we give the police, the more likely it is that innocent people will be hurt or wrongfully imprisoned.

These cases also show that when the police do make mistakes, they are reluctant to admit it. With a limit to detention, wrongfully arrested people will at least be released in time. With no time limit, the temptation would be very strong to keep suspects under detention in the hope that something will turn up and vindicate the decision to arrest them. And of course the longer the detention goes on, the more difficult it becomes for the police to admit their mistake. This can only end badly, with innocent people disappearing into some kind of legal limbo. We must not expose the police to this temptation.

Yours etc.