The protection of British subjects not to be detained without charge dates back almost 800 years. It was set out in the Magna Carta, forming the backbone of legal systems right across the globe.

Yet Britain's current limit for detention without charge, at 28 days, is already the longest pre-charge detention period in the world.
These freedoms have survived the middle ages, civil war, two global conflicts, the cold war and terrorism.

This extension to 42 days is totally unnecessary and unworkable. The government has presented no remotely convincing evidence that it is needed.

If the support of Labour rebels and the Ulster Unionist party was won in exchange for concessions, auctioning off the very foundations of the British state, then James Plaskitt and Gordon Brown should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves. - Alan Beddow, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary spokesperson, Warwick and Leamington.