Gordon Brown appears to have won his battle to persuade his party that the new powers for detaining terrorist suspects without charge must contain the words “42 days”. But his initial proposals to increase pre-charge detention from 28 days have been diluted by a maze of safeguards. This looks like a political fix. It is certainly not a genuine response to national security needs.

The UK prime minister says the police need this extra time because the investigation of terror threats is more complex than in the past. He claims that terrorist networks are more diffuse than they once were, more liaison is required with foreign police forces, and the spread of CCTV and the revolution in computing have increased the volume of evidence. This is a threadbare case upon which to base another serious attack on habeas corpus.