So, 42 days is no more but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t still be worried about the dog’s breakfast that remains of the anti-terror bill currently being rammed through Parliament. Here’s Marcel Berlins in the Guardian:

The main objection is to clause 77, which would give a home secretary the power to order that an inquest be held without a jury if he or she believes that evidence given should not be made public “a) in the interests of national security, b) in the interests of the relationship between the UK and another country, or c) otherwise in the public interest”. For instance, a home secretary could decide that an inquest into the death of a British soldier killed by friendly fire be held without a jury, because the evidence disclosed might make the US cross with the UK; or that it was against the public interest for us to know about the police’s behaviour when they killed Jean Charles de Menezes. There are circumstances in which sensitive information ought not to be made public; but the government’s plan is overkill, gives the home secretary too much power and greatly reduces the public’s right to know the truth about suspicious and controversial deaths.

It’s a familiar New Labour trick actually so we shouldn’t be too outraged, merely wearily cynical. This isn’t about fixing the problem, it’s about shutting people up talking about the problem.

We’ve seen it with regard to whistleblowers and we know the government hates it when someone points out that they were culpable in the deaths of soldiers in the field.

So what’s the solution? A wholesale purging of the stinking practices that inspire whistleblowers to speak out? More money and equipment for soldiers so we have fewer preventable deaths? Nah, don’t be so bloody stupid. It’s prosecution for one and cover-up for the other.

All this public fuss over the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes? An accident of history and legislation. Don’t expect to see it again.

About turn, quick march: Like, wow:

The government will not pursue a clause in its controversial counter-terrorism bill to allow inquests to be held in private due to “national security”.

Is it gone for good or hiding like a rake in the grass, ready to pop up later…?