25 Sept 2008

Terror laws are attack on all our freedoms, says spy writer Le Carré in furious tirade against ministers

Spy novelist John Le Carré has criticised the (UK) Govern-ment for 'stripping' away British civil liberties due to the threat of terrorism.

John le Carré at home in Cornwall. (image by Jonathan Player)

The 76-year-old author and former MI6 agent, who rarely speaks publicly, slammed ministers for voting to extend the 42-day limit that terror suspects can be held without charge.

Le Carré, who admitted he had been labelled an 'angry old man', said: 'Partly I'm so angry that there is so little anger around me at what is being done to our society, supposedly to protect it.

'We have been taken to war under false pretences, and stripped of our civil liberties in an atmosphere of panic.

'Our lawyers don't take to the streets as they have in Pakistan. Our MPs allow themselves to be deluded by their own spin doctors, and end up believing their own propaganda'  Mail Online & John le Carré Official Author's Website