Control orders – politically neutralised for now?

David Davis not convinced by the Control Orders Lite regime. Ming Campbell is. Welcome to the strange world of coalition politics.

In general, exhausted by the drawn out process of consultation over control orders and by recent set-backs elsewhere in the policy jungle, there is a whiff of Lib Dems trumpeting a triumph when they’ve actually got a lot less than they might have expected several months ago.

Yvette Cooper showed the same brutality as her husband, Ed Balls, calling the reforms an irresponsible chaotic shambles and a political fudge.

Theresa May prompted laughter from David Blunkett as she outlined what she called changes and what he saw as a wheeze to spare the embarrassment of Nick Clegg.

Ian Paisley Jnr reminded the “cosy” House that a huge bomb found in Belfast this morning had caused massive disruption and could have caused massive loss of life.

Tom Docherty, Labour backbencher, said if it looks and sounds like a curfew it is a curfew.

Pat McFadden was the only MP who gave the sort of full-throated, unapologetic Blairite view of security measures that got its way in past debates on counter-terrorist crackdowns but is now a lonely voice.

You come away with a sense that the issue has been politically neutralised for now. A control order suspect who breaches the rules could change that drastically, of course.

But there was little appetite amongst Lib Dems MPs to proclaim this policy disappointing.

How will the activists respond though when they see headlines proclaiming a timid reform?

There was particular controversy around the emergency draft powers that the government will hold in reserve – counter terrorist measures that look an awful lot like the ones they are repealing and which they say they will be able to rush back into law if their judgement call proves to be wrong and these abandoned powers are needed.

With a consensus, it is possible to get a bill through all its parliamentary processes in a day, as Ming Campbell pointed out. But if Parliament isn’t sitting (that’s been quite a chunk of the year in the past) this could be a difficult trick to pull off. When the Omagh bombing happened on 15th August 1998, Parliament wasn’t recalled until 2nd and 3rd September. If there are time-critical bits of law that urgently need passing that sort of gap could be dangerous.