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Leading article

The vision thing

Wednesday, 7th November 2007

The Spectator on the Queen's speech

This was a curate’s egg from a son of the manse. Some of the proposals are to be welcomed with varying degrees of caution. Mr Brown is undoubtedly right that fresh measures are needed to confront terrorism, and that an extension of the pre-charge detention period will be required. The Tories have misread public opinion and ignored police advice on this matter. It may well be that 28 days is already a high threshold for a developed democracy, but few developed democracies face a homegrown terrorist threat as advanced and complex as Britain’s.

After the 7 July atrocities, investigators spent a full fortnight merely gaining full access to the sites of the attacks and a further six weeks to complete forensic inquiries. In a world of global Islamist conspiracy, computer encryption and fiendishly complex forensic tasks, the demand for longer detention time is not draconian but a practical response to an altered threat. This will be a hugely controversial parliamentary battle — but the PM should stand his ground.

Mr Brown also deserves a hearing on ‘Britishness’, citizenship and allegiance, issues that will be addressed in a draft citizenship and immigration Bill before Christmas, as well as a draft statement of British values next year. It is true that, historically, the British way has been to avoid overt discussion of national identity and to assume that this identity is understood by all citizens, as if by osmosis. Sadly, that assumption is now misplaced. The pulverising pressures of demographic change, the ideology of multi-culturalism and the decline of traditional history teaching all mean that there is a daunting backlog of repair work to be done: Mr Brown is right to try.

In other respects, however, the Queen’s Speech resembled a shopping list rather than the basis for a better society. The extension of the definition of ‘hate speech’, new fertility entitlements for gay couples, the vague promise that those who protect themselves from attack and use ‘reasonable force’ will be ‘fully protected’: these and other measures were transparently aimed at appeasing specific lobby groups or responding to focusgroup anxieties.