As MPs debated a new law that critics said curbed fundamental British freedoms, a riot erupted outside the House of Commons. Police with batons were pelted with bottles, sticks and firecrackers by demonstrators who were angry that the government was forcing through its plans despite prolonged and trenchant opposition.

Those protests took place not last week – as the Labour government narrowly won Commons backing for plans to detain terrorism suspects for 42 days without charge – but almost 15 years ago. The fierce opposition was to the past Conservative government’s 1994 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act, which abridged criminal suspects’ ­centuries-old right to silence.