We also proposed that the Act should lapse after five years if it was not renewed. We lost those arguments and the Government got their way. Liberal Democrats have always accepted the need for the power to proscribe terrorist organisations. When the House debated the Bill, it specifically discussed the Irish organisations on the list, which had been the subject of detailed scrutiny in Committee. We foresaw from the beginning the problems that we are discussing tonight.
Organisations avoid proscription only if they can clear one of two hurdles.
They must either persuade the Secretary of State to reverse his view or win a case before the appeal commission. The committee represents Parliament. Column 962 made on them in the House. It was not asked to comment, however, nor was an independent judicial view taken, although we argued for that in Committee. Perhaps the most telling concern of all is that, although we have had only an hour and two minutes of debate and have only 28 minutes left, the House is meant not only to judge on 21 entirely different organisations, but to hold one vote and make one decision that will proscribe every one of them, regardless of whether, according to the Home Secretary's list, they have a headquarters here, have members here or have been active here.