What the public wants is sensible measures that will tackle terrorism, but they don't want to see the very fundamental principles of justice and liberty broken away.

There can be no justification for the bombings that took place in London.Britain's involvement in the war in Iraq is no excuse for Muslim extremism.However, it would be wrong for the Government to deny that Muslim communities feel a sense of unease about our involvement in Iraq.

As things stand, I don't think the case has been made for moving beyond the 14-day period we already have,

We still want to try to seek consensus, however two sticking points have emerged for us.

Keeping suspects in police detention for three months would be radically out of step with our European and Commonwealth partners. Where other countries hold suspects for long periods there are safeguards in the form of an independent judge who decides if there is a case to answer.

In the days after 9/11, we heard innumerable reprises of the lazy leftist trope 'poverty breeds terrorism.' But the Arab world is wealthy. It suffers, as David Pryce-Jones has said, from intellectual poverty.