When I was asked, in November 1997, whether I would allow my name to be submitted to the Lord Chancellor for appointment as a lay member of the new Special Immigration Appeals Commission, I readily agreed, not only because I was flattered, but because I accepted that special procedures for appeals against deportation in national security cases were justified. I believed that SIAC, though imperfect, was probably the best way of giving maximum protection both to those appealing against deportation and to the sources of information essential to the effective functioning of the security services. I heard the commission's first case and nothing caused me there and then to think I was mistaken in my beliefs. But subsequent developments forced me to conclude that I could not in all conscience play any further part in SIAC, and in January this year I resigned.

LRB 18 March 2004 | PDF Download