IN THE House of Commons recently, the most draconian piece of legislation has been passing on to the statute book literally unopposed.

The new anti-terrorist legislation brought in on the back of events in America on September 11 makes internment without trial a reality and allows the police and security services unlimited powers to interfere in peoples lives.

Again our worthy local parliamentary representatives raised not a wimper of objection. In fact only five MPs opposed the legislation on first reading.

The question must be what has happened in this country since September 11 to justify bringing in such powers? The answer is absolutely nothing.

The question of a perceived terrorist threat in the UK only becomes a reality if this country is viewed as the 52nd state of the United States. True enough, our irresponsible leaders have done their best to make this country a terrorist target.

Again now, as in the past, we are seeing a perceived terrorist being used as justification to take away people's most basic civil liberties.

Unless the words of the civil libertarians are listened to now, history looks set to repeat itself with even more draconian measures passing on to the statute book under the false belief that they will provide more security for the general public. In reality such moves will only mark out another group of innocent people as subjects for intimidation.

PAUL DONOVAN, Dangan Road, Wanstead.