Tom Paine Festival: Lord Lloyd of Berwick

Lord Lloyd of Berwick, the former Law Lord whose 1995 review of terrorist law was an important part of the process leading to the Labour government’s 2000 Terrorism Act, is giving the latest talk in the Tom Paine Festival, on the subject Security v Liberty. “Tom Paine was very involved with the consequences of terrorism,” he told Viva Lewes, “and he would be very interested in what was going on today.” Lord Berwick was a vociferous opponent last autumn to the government’s proposal to increase the period in which a suspected terrorist could be detained without being charged from 14 days to three months. “The suggestion that that period should be three months… begins to look, I’m afraid to say, a little like internment,” he said at the time. “And it would certainly be seen that way by some of the ethnic minorities. Fancy being kept for three months without being charged. I think that is intolerable."

Lord Lloyd seemed encouraged by the recent news from the States that the Supreme Court had voted to give Guantanamo prisoners the right to trial in the United States. “That is a terribly important decision which will knock President Bush back a long way,” he says. “There has also recently been the equally important High Court decision that control orders are incompatible with European human rights laws.” He also promises to talk about Cameron’s recent proposal to change the Bill of Rights and ‘a few things the Prime Minister has recently said.’ Sounds like he’ll be firing from both barrels. AL