Thurs 16 Nov 2006

Fiasco Royale?

David Starkey is joined by Juval Aviv (has worked as a consultant on terrorism and security issues), Billy Bragg (musician), and Christina Lamb (Sunday Times Foreign correspondent).

As the latest Bond film hits the screens, our own, very real, spies are tracking more than 30 terror plots and have over 1600 suspects under surveillance.

In this week's Queen's speech a counter-terror Bill was announced, the Government confirmed they are going ahead with ID cards, and it seems likely that they will try and re-introduce 90 day detention for terrorism suspects, all as part of the ongoing campaign to protect us from terrorists. In a major u-turn, phone tap evidence may also be admissible in court.

In his various incarnations, James Bond always manages to stay one step ahead of his enemies, with an uncanny ability to predict national security threats, but can our real spies do the same, or is the ever-changing face of terrorism destined to remain with us always? Is the terror threat really as bad as the Government makes out, or are they playing on our fears in order to justify further infringements of our civil liberties?