Bill Carmichael: Tories fail first security test

For years the security services in the UK have been hampered in their efforts to protect innocent civilians by the pernicious impact of the Human Rights Act, which some judges have interpreted as preventing the deportation or detention of foreign-born terrorists plotting atrocities in the UK.

The new Government was supposed to stop this nonsense. Conservative leader David Cameron was unequivocal in his determination to abolish the Human Rights Act and replace it with a British Bill of Rights. The Tory manifesto included a commitment to do so. So what happens when the new administration faces its first big national security test? It fails it miserably. The 11 million people who voted Conservative in the hope of a tougher approach towards jihadi killers must be wondering why they bothered.

This week the Special Immigration and Appeals Commission ruled that two

al-Qaida-linked Pakistani nationals, Abid Naseer and Ahmad Ferez Khan, were planning "a mass casualty attack" in Britain – most probably an Easter bombing raid on the Arndale shopping centre in Manchester.

The Commission was satisfied that the men, who were in the UK as

students, posed a serious security risk – but then turned logic on its head by ruling they could not be deported because they could face torture in Pakistan. Cue some ineffectual hand-wringing from new Home Secretary Theresa May who commented: "We are now taking all possible measures to ensure they do not engage in terrorist activity."

How precisely are you going to do that Theresa? You can't throw them out, because the judges won't let you. You can't lock them up, because that would infringe their human rights. So the best we can do is to let them go and hope – fingers crossed – they don't get their hands on any fertiliser or peroxide and that they are not sitting next to a member of your family on a train or bus when they decide to hit the detonator button.

Meanwhile, the Government has announced a special commission to review the Human Rights Act, but it is clearly here to stay. In other words, the tough-talking Tories have raised the white flag within weeks of gaining office.

It may come as a surprise to our activist judges but terrorists aren't the only ones to have human rights – ordinary people have them, too. Any reasonable tribunal would weigh up the risks of terrorists being tortured in Pakistan against the risk of an innocent family being blown to bits while out shopping – and act accordingly.

The evidence that they will face torture if deported is flimsy to say the least. Eight other members of the bombing plot returned to Pakistan – and not one has disappeared, been jailed or tortured. In fact, they are happy to chat to journalists to condemn British "racism" – hardly evidence that they are fearful for their lives.

If Theresa May had any courage, she would defy the Lib Dems and our politicised judiciary, slap the two jihadis in handcuffs, and stick them on an RAF plane to Karachi.

"Bye, bye – missing you already!"

Of course, it won't happen and we'll have to wait until the next – sadly inevitable – Islamist atrocity before things change.

I'm afraid the present administration is just as ineffectual and feeble as the last lot.

Oh for a politician with a bit of backbone.

It's no joke

Liam Byrne, the former Chief Secretary of the Treasury, came up with the perfect epitaph for 13 years of Labour rule when he wrote to his successor: "Dear Chief Secretary, I'm afraid to tell you there is no money. Kind regards and good luck!"

We shouldn't really be shocked – every Labour government has invariably ended in economic chaos. Every time they have tasted power – MacDonald, Attlee, Wilson/Callaghan, Blair/Brown – they have left a mess that has had to be cleared up by their successors.

The only surprise is that people like Liam Byrne seem to think their gross economic mismanagement is in some way funny.