At the end of questions, Miss Cooper tried to take another crack at the Home Secretary, by claiming on a point of order that the Government had failed to place ?draft emergency legislation? in the Library of the House, despite promising only last Thursday to do so.
This was the moment at which some of us began to feel a little bit uneasy. The unfortunate truth is that however often the subject is explained to us, one or two of us men have never acquired a flawless grasp of the circumstances in which draft emergency legislation is needed, and those in which it is not.
Miss May is made of sterner stuff. The Home Secretary said draft legislation would indeed be placed before the House, but in the meantime the Government could make use, if necessary, of section 25 of the Terrorism Act 2006.
As for the lapsing of the 28-day provision, that was being achieved through the customary legal process of the ?sunset clause? which was included in the original legislation.
The Home Secretary made it sound as if she was in full command of her brief. At this first skirmish between the two them, she also sounded in full command of Miss Cooper, but there is plenty of time for that to change, beginning with the general statement on counter-terrorism which Miss May will deliver on Wednesday.
The Home Secretary had earlier insisted on the ability of police forces ?to make substantial savings in the back office?. Labour MPs failed to get Miss May to admit that if police numbers fall, crime might well rise.
Miss Cooper had nothing much to say about the back office. We regret to report that some people think she is more interested in the stab in the back office: the theory being that she and her husband, Ed Balls, are out to ?get? Ed Miliband, the Leader of the Opposition, and replace him with one of themselves.
Miss May rightly made no direct allusion to this distressing possibility. For although the Home Secretary is responsible for law and order, she cannot be expected to go around arresting people such as Miss Cooper and Mr Balls on the mere suspicion that they are plotting to assassinate Mr Miliband.
Any such act by Miss May would be a direct attack on the ancient British freedom, upheld with particular devotion by the Tories, to behead any leader who becomes impossibly unpopular.
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