Home Secretary

[Quizmonster]

"Does Theresa May know what day it is?"
That's today's headline over the Times Online's article about the latest Abu Q farce. (I've decided to call him A Book At Bedtime from now on.)
Well, does she?

[naomi24]

Let's hope it is.

[sir.prize]

It beggars belief that Yvette Cooper currently shadow Home secretary is criticising the Government regarding the Qatada case. She and her Labour cronies were responsible for his presence in the UK during the last decade. Did they act swiftly to deport him? I understand this stupid woman is married to Ed Balls. That figures!

[jno]

sir.prize, he was let into the country by John Major's government.

[Gromit]

Sir.Prize

Qatada arrived in the UK in 1993 when the Conservatives were in power. Long before Yvette Cooper was even an MP.

[pdq1]

To stop all this bickering why don't they have a holding prison in Brussels right next to the offices of this commission who make all these decisions.

[TheNovice]

gromit/jno you're both right......but labour did have 10 years to do this and did nothing for most of that time However, the whole thing is a poor reflection of the way this country tows the line and gets kicked in the gonads for doing so. It does not reflect well on anyone, or the asylum process as a whole. Think the whole issue needs addressing from top to bottom.

[ladybirder]

Will we be getting rid of his family as well or will we continue to financially support them?

[sir.prize]

jno and Gromit - indeed you are both correct. My point was that the former Government made little effort to deport him during their tenure, but now Yvette Cooper is on her soapbox criticising the current Home Secretary.

[Gromit]

Sir.Prize

That is the job of Shadow Home Secretary.

The Last Labour Government tried since 2005 to deport Qatada. And the Coaltion have been trying for the last two years.

It is valid to criticise May for squandering the first real opportunity to do so.

[sir.prize]

As I said - Mrs Balls!

[TWR]

For a person to stand in a London Street, a known Anti British pratt who condems a country that had taken him & his tribe in, supply them with a double house, & give hand out's, you go into any country abroad & try it, do you think they would keep you,? do you think if you where put in prison & demand a laptop like this clown you would get it? wake up do-gooders this is the year 2012

[Brenden]

Ladybird, bet the family stays in the UK and continues pon...g off this country while supporting him.

[Gromit]

Anti-British Prat. Are you sure?

// Britain ignored warnings — which began before the 11 September attacks — from half a dozen friendly governments about Abu Qatada’s links with terrorist groups and refused to arrest him. Intelligence chiefs hid from European allies their intention to use the cleric as a key informer against Islamic militants in Britain. //

[Gromit]

Apparently, journalists warned the Government that the ECHR were saying the order was due to run out on Tuesday night. The Government insisted it was Monday. But if there was any ambiguity then they should not have arrested him Monday but waited a few hours.

There are two possibilities, neither of which are good for the Government.
1. They knew ECHR were saying it ran out on Tuesday night but ignored it leading to Qatada's wrongful arrest and delay in his deportation.
2. They deliberately jumped the gun to discredit the ECHR. Reading this thread aptly illustrates that is what has happened.

[Quizmonster]

Having started this thread with a headline from Times Online yesterday, I thought i might end it with another headline from the same source today...

"May undone by simple mathematics"

Thanks to all for your responses, apart from the obviously silly ones, but especially to you, Ludwig. I was beginning to think no one was going to respond to the sound-effect point in my question. Now, I can not just SAY the name-variant, I can SING it, too!

[anotheoldgit]

/// We should not bash Britain and the Government for these highly unusual cases. ///

"we should not bash Britain and the Government".

Now there's something new, I never thought I would see Gromit make a statement such as that.

[anotheoldgit]

Gromit

/// In 2010 there were 39,030 foreign nationals deported from within the UK, an increase of 3% from 2009. ///

All taken place once Labour were finally chucked out, now what does that tell you?

[pdq1]

Theresa May was right all along. The way she calculated her dates was based on precedent when appeals are made to this higher court and they used the starting point as the day the order was made not the day following.

They have just moved the goalposts!

[Gromit]

// All taken place once Labour were finally chucked out, now what does that tell you? //

It tells me you have forgotten that Labour were still in power for one third of that year and were not chucked out until May. The 2011 figure will be interesting, so you think it will be higher? If it isn't what does that tell you?

[Gromit]

AOG

I have now found the deportation statistics since the coalition came to power. Would you care to comment on this graph?

http://fullfact.org/s...tions%20of%20FNPs.png