Counter-Terrorism Bill
10:30 am
Patrick Mercer (Newark, Conservative)
I welcome you to the Chair, Mr. Bercow. I rise briefly to support the amendment and to pick up some of the comments of my fellow member of the Home Affairs Committee, the hon. Member for Reading, West. In view of the evidence that we have taken on that Committee, our not asking for Dame Stella Rimington to come forward was probably a mistake. The hon. Gentleman makes a very good point. I think he is mistaken about her involvement in Conservative party policy, but I stand to be corrected on that.
The great value that Dame Stella Rimington will add is this. It became clear in our deliberations in the Home Affairs Committee that, particularly on the issue of detention without charge and the evolution from a state of internment during the Northern Ireland troubles through to how that was manipulated and manoeuvred towards the so-called end of the Northern Ireland troubles and then into the emerging threat from Islamist fundamentalism, she has a unique view on these two varied, but similar, campaigns. I believe that she could give an unparalleled and very useful insight into these matters.