"I also remind the House that the use of confessional evidence, which is the basis of the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act, has led to the imprisonment of the Birmingham Six, who have now served almost 16 years in British prisons. I have visited them in prison several times...My experience of the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act is that it has nothing to do with the prevention of terrorism and everything to do with policing and patrolling the Irish community in this country. I have lost count of the number of occasions that I have had telephone calls late at night from Irish people who live in my constituency, who were expecting a son, a daughter, an uncle, an aunt or a father to come across to visit them from Dublin or from Belfast, but who find that they have not arrived. They ask me, "Do you know where they are?" I have no idea where they are. We then start an amazing series of telephone calls to find out whether someone is being held under the Act. A Kafka-like mystery surrounds it and it is not clear whether that person is being held until lawyers make contact and eventually application is made for a writ of habeas corpus."
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Members of the Parliament of the United KingdomAnti-war activistsLGBT rights activistsActivists from EnglandHuman rights activists
Original Language: English
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Speech in the House of Commons (6 March 1990).
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jeremy_Corbyn
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Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (born 26 May 1949) is a British independent politician who was formerly Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition (September 2015–April 2020). He was first elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Islington North in 1983. At the July 2024 general election, he returned to parliament as an independent MP.
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