Former anti-terrorist officer says Britain is sinking into a police state.

The Guardian reports that George Churchill-Coleman, who headed Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist squad in the 1980s and 1990s, and who had to tackle the threat posed by the IRA has this to say on the govt's house arrest proposals:

George Churchill-Coleman, who headed Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist squad as they worked to counter the IRA during their mainland attacks in the late 1980s and early 1990s, said Mr Clarke's proposals to extend powers, such as indefinite house arrest, were "not practical" and threatened to further marginalise minority communities.

Mr Churchill-Coleman told the Guardian: "I have a horrible feeling that we are sinking into a police state, and that's not good for anybody. We live in a democracy and we should police on those standards.

He added: "I have serious worries and concerns about these ideas on both ethical and practical terms. You cannot lock people up just because someone says they are terrorists. Internment didn't work in Northern Ireland, it won't work now. You need evidence."

I quite agree. And whom am I to argue with an ex anti-terrorist officer? Incidently, I think I can locate the cause of Mr Churchill-Coleman's horrible feeling: We are sinking into a police state.

On a completely different topic, the blogger behind the auroran sunset has said he's unable to select text on my blog, using the Firefox and Safari browsers. I am able to do so with Firefox, whether I'm logged into the account or not. I've also checked the template and settings and can't find any obvious reason why this should be the case. I've regenerated the whole blog and enabled the facility to email articles to friends to see if this helps. Anyway please let me know if you're having any difficulties.

A note to the auroran sunset if you're reading this.

I've emailed you via the email address you use on usenet. I hope that gets through. I couldn't find any other address on your website and I didn't want to create a new blog on www.livejournal.com just to send you a comment via the diary (your disabling of anonymous comments limits comments to livejournal users).