Meanwhile, across the pond…

...Gordon Brown and the Labour Party have gone wildly astray. This week, in a despicable betrayal of liberal principles, Labour voted to extend the period a suspect may be held without charge to 42 days, up from the traditional 28. That may seem a trivial expansion but the act itself set a new and scary precedent, that even the most settled of legal questions can be re-examined if the politics make sense. The Guardian, quite correctly, tears Brown up. The lead graph just sets the table.

Is this what Gordon Brown had in mind when he promised a progressive consensus? His plans to detain terrorism suspects for 42 days before charge survived yesterday thanks to the connivance of parliament's most reactionary faction, the Democratic Unionist party. He won last night's divisive vote - just - but lost the argument and shredded his majority. That is not the only reason why the victory was hollow. The prime minister has squandered parliamentary time, goodwill and his reputation as a man of principle on a symbolic sacrifice of liberty. That sacrifice is gratuitous, a vote on a law that would not work, is not needed and which, quite possibly, will never come into force.

Indeed.