YouGov/Liberty poll on 42 days
A YouGov poll for Liberty shows a high level of support for keeping the 28 day limit on holding terrorist suspects without charge if the rules are relaxed to allow the police to continue to question them.
Previous polls have always shown public support for allowing the police to hold terrorist suspects for longer, but in this case when the alternative of keeping the 28 day limit but allowing questioning to continue after charge was offered, 70% of people supported it with only 13% in favour. I should add at least one caveat - people were given a choice of the status quo, questioning after charge OR a 42 day limit, so if people liked the idea of questioning after charge, they weren't able to opt for 42 days AND questioning after charge. All the same, it still appears to be a popular alternative.
YouGov also asked how likely people thought it was that innocent people would end up being held for up to 42 days if the pre-detention period was extended. 39% thought this was a real risk, but 43% thought it very unlikely. The idea that longer detention powers would damage Britain's reputation overseas also met with relatively little support - only 28% of people agreed, with 46% thinking it would be good for Britain's repuation.
Off-topic, there will be an ICM poll in tomorrow's Guardian on the London mayoral election. This is the first ICM poll on the election, the first media poll except for those from YouGov (the only other poll was the Labour party's own internal polling from MORI) and the first non-YouGov poll since Boris Johnson opened up a significant lead over Ken Livingstone. At the last election Populus's (who use much the same methodology as ICM) final polls were much kinder to Ken Livingstone than YouGov's, so we should expect ICM to show a lower Johnson lead.
