Anti-terror plans ‘half-baked’

ALL sides of the political spectrum attacked the British Government’s raft of counter-terrorism proposals as “random” and “half-baked” yesterday.

As the Lord Chancellor Charles Falconer dismissed as “extraordinarily unlikely” that radical clerics could be charged with treason, politicians from all three major parties criticised the way ministers have set out the next steps to combat terror.

Mr Falconer said it was “not really necessary or appropriate” to use treason against firebrand clerics and insisted it had never been a serious option.

He also denied the Government had any plans to introduce “secret trials” or internment as it was confirmed the Home Office is considering pre-trial hearings behind closed doors.

Instead, he said the special courts would look at sensitive security material to see if it justified prosecution, and find ways it could be used in a normal trial.

Former Labour Home Office minister John Denham, who chairs the Commons committee which is to investigate the July attacks, accused ministers of floating “half-baked ideas.”

Speaking about the court proposals, Liberal Democrat president Simon Hughes said: “The Prime Minister appears to have left a series of Post-it notes on his desk instructing people to float one half-baked plan after another.”

The treason charge - not used since the 1940s - was among options being looked at by police and prosecutors yesterday.