As I understand it the new law on detention means that any alcoholic police inspector can lock almost anyone up for forty two days without having to justify their actions to anyone.
For example, exactly what does it mean to be suspected of terrorism? If you say something nice to a dark skinned shelf stacker in your local supermarket who the police suspect to be associated with terrorism, that means that you can also be suspected of being associated with terrorism and so the police can bang you up for forty two days and there’s nothing you can do about it.
In the old days the police had to convince a judge that they had reason to detain a suspect but now we may soon find boozed up police people pulling names out of a hat and then making bets on how the unlucky individual will cope with forty two days of unexpected detention. Should the ‘suspect’ die while in detention, fans of Casablanca will know that Britain’s new police people will have up to forty two days to decide on whether the ‘suspect’ committed suicide or was shot while trying to escape.
I never had a problem with detention approved by a judge, but this new law seems to have simply taken the judges out of the loop. (According to a knowledgeable BBC RAdio 4 comment, under the old seven day rule the police had seven days to either charge or release a suspect. But after seven days they also had the option of applying to a judge for an extension and they were then able to keep getting extensions until either their enquires were complete or the judge said enough was enough. With this procedure in place, there was probably no need to even change the seven day rule.)
(Caution: Do not accidentally dial a wrong number. It could, in today's world, have catastrophic consequences.)
