WE have had a lot of reference in the media to Tony Bair's heavy defeat with regard to the 90 days detention in the Terrorism Bill.

At the risk of being considered the spectre at the feast, can I ask all the people so highly delighted to remember a longstanding practice in union circles, when negotiating pay rises, to always initially demand more than they actually expect to get in order that they could settle for the lower amount.

I can imagine that the outrage, had Tony asked initially for 28 days rather than 90, would have been just as strong.

The attainment of this would have been regarded as a heavy defeat for the Left and a serious curtailment of our liberty.

Having it presented as a defeat for Tony Blair when it is a severe loss of our democratic freedom, is to my mind, a brilliant tactical victory for him and an implicit acceptance of our loss of Habeus Corpus and the right to be considered innocent until actually proven guilty. The number of days of detention is irrelevent. Even the USA, for whom this curtailment of our liberties is being condoned, it is only seven days.

How many more of these erosions of our freedoms will we be conned into accepting before we find ourselves in a dictatorship?

JIM HOMEWOOD

Rectory Lane

Prestwich