Jacqui Smith on why? we need 42 day legislation

I am struggling to understand why the government is persisting with the 42 day legislation as has been mentioned on this blog before.

Simon Jenkins writing in yesterday's Guardian made a very good case for dumping the legisaltion

It is equalled in almost no other free country and backed by almost no one in Britain's judicial or security establishments. Opponents or known sceptics embrace the former lord chancellor, the former attorney general, the security minister, the director of public prosecution, numerous police chiefs including London's and, so it is said, the leadership of MI5. In an unguarded moment, the whips even murmured that Brown regards it as an inconvenience "inherited from Tony Blair".

Perhaps then the Home secretary can shed some light on the reasons why.Speaking to the Spectator which is out today Ms Smith sheds some light on the darkness but not a great deal

The whole point is that these powers are being sought before they are absolutely necessary but on the basis that they will soon become so

.

Whatever else it is, this is not ‘internment’, the shredding of Magna Carta or the end of habeas corpus.

The irony of the present parliamentary row over 42 days is that her opponents seem willing to accept almost any crackdown other than this particular measure