I WAS surprised, and saddened, that five out of six residents giving their "View from the street" (November 10 edition) were in favour of detaining terror suspects without charge for 90 days.

I was, however, gladdened that our MP, Dr Richard Taylor, voted against the measure and still opposes the ID card bill.

When asked what people valued about Britain, most would say that it is a free country. Free countries do not lock people up for months without charge.

The five people quoted were unconvinced about civil liberties, perhaps because they are not likely to be locked up for 90 days themselves.

But the arguments are not just about civil liberties. They are about the practical impacts of British policies.

Internment did not work in Northern Ireland - it only increased bitterness and provided recruiting propaganda for terrorists.

Alienating the Muslim community today will hinder intelligence gathering, and help terror groups to recruit.

If Britain wants to reduce its vulnerability to terrorism, we could do many things other than attack our hard won civil liberties.

We could withdraw from Iraq.

In a recent poll, 85 per cent of Iraqis were "strongly opposed" to the presence of coalition troops, and only one per cent believed coalition forces have improved security.

We could make it clear that we shall not attack Syria or Iran when George Bush decides to. We could condemn the horrible human rights abuses in Uzbekistan, rather than use unreliable intelligence gathered there by torture.

We could also withdraw support for Israel until they give the Palestinians their state.

We could stop selling arms to India and Pakistan to point at each other. If Britain did all this, we would have demonstrated our nation can play fair and defend human rights in the world, and kept our enviable civil liberties.

We would also have removed most of the grievances behind the terror attacks. Then the argument that we all need £500 ID cards to keep us safe would hold even less water.

VICKY DUNN

East Street

Kidderminster