mr president this was a finely balanced issue and i envy some of the moral certainty expressed by people on both sides of it
there were legitimate civil liberty issues concerns that would be shared by people in the united states as well as in the european union
nonetheless i feel on balance that the american administration went out of its way to meet the concerns which were expressed on this side of the atlantic and has come out with a proportionate proposal which takes account of the balance between security and freedom
i have spoken out against many of the measures that were introduced in this place over the past ten years under the cover of security measures which were in fact simply about aggrandising the powers of the state
but in this case i do not think it comes in that category we are looking at a measure where you can point to specific successes that it has had in terms of foiling terrorist atrocities
i am afraid i do not think that some of the critics in this house were really interested in civil liberties
they had two other agendas first to assert the power of the federal parliament against the nation states and secondly their reflexive belief that america is always and everywhere in the wrong
it is a pity
after the election of barack obama many on the left of this house were talking warmly about a new partnership across the atlantic
today we can see what faith to put in their words
