GIVEN our current problems with Islamic terrorists, it is a matter of regret that our observance of human rights in Britain should beggar Mr McTernan’s belief (Letters, June 6).

He asks what Winston would have done about it. Well, we know what he did when faced with the panic over “enemy aliens” in 1940 when his response had been “collar the lot”.

Later events, however, did persuade him to execute that classic politician’s move, the U-turn, when he assured the House of Commons that he had always thought the fifth column danger exaggerated, albeit with what one historian described as “an impressive display of amnesia”.

At the time, however, his “collar the lot” policy resulted in a total of 1,829 supposedly dangerous persons being detained, of which it subsequently proved possible to release 1,603 but not before much needless suffering had been incurred.

Perhaps we should recall Robert Bolt’s words attributed to Sir Thomas More in his play A Man for All Seasons.

More’s son-in-law William Roper had been upbraiding him for being overly technical and standing on the letter of the law against the machinations of Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell, claiming that he himself would cut a great road through the law to get after the devil.

More replies: “Oh, and when the last law was down and the devil turned round, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? ... do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then?”

Tony Lawton, Skelton, York