A waste of time

Plenty of reaction to the 42-day vote in this morning's papers.  A summary of the consensus: enjoy this success while you can Brown, because it won't last long.  But of the all the angry column pieces, Steve Richards' is perhaps the most incisive.  His thesis is that Brown has wasted Government time in the effort to get his detention proposals through Parliament:

"Here is a Labour government with possibly less than two years left in power. If it loses the next election, the party could be out of power for two terms at least. This summer is the last phase, possibly for a long time, in which a Labour administration can take some risks in order to make a difference to people's lives, to implement policies which make a lasting impact, ones that will generate waves for years to come. Soon all attention will be on the next general election and there will be no space for big legislative moves. By next summer, the general election will be only months away and the appetite for risk-taking, always limited in this government, will be non-existent. Time is running out.

How has Mr Brown chosen to spend these valuable summer days when real power is still in his hands, the pivotal phase before it shrivels to nothing as the next election moves into view? He chooses to use up vast amounts of limited energy and political capital persuading MPs to vote for a measure that may never be used, that may not be practical if any senior police officer wanted to use it and may still be defeated in the House of Lords. He has done so when there is already provision, in the event of an emergency, to extend the period that a suspect can be detained.

As Mr Brown often declares, governing is about hard choices. Of his own volition, he made 42 days the centre of attention during the phase of the political cycle when he was still free to put any policy area in that privileged position. It is the choice that makes him culpable."