"British police have set up an anti-terrorist hotline for the public to report suspicious activity as new questions arise over Britain's ability to handle a Madrid-style terrorist attack. Police say the objective of their new anti-terrorism campaign is to turn Britain into what one senior officer calls "the most hostile environment" for terrorist activity.

Most Britons support Asbos - survey

The vast majority of Britons support the anti-social behaviour orders introduced by the Government to tackle street yobbery, nuisance neighbours and vandalism, according to a survey. But half of them doubt whether the orders - Asbos - are actually having an effect in changing behaviour.

According to the details of the Mori survey, broadcast on BBC2's Newsnight, while 82% of those questioned said they supported Asbos, only 39% thought they were effective compared to 46% who did not.

Asbos were introduced by the Home Office in 1999. Around 2,500 have been issued in the past four years, with widely varying rates of use in different parts of the country.

Some police forces have been enthusiastic about the new powers, but concerns have been raised about their fairness - most notably this week by the EU human rights commissioner Alvaro Gil Robles. Opponents complain that breaches of the orders can lead to spells in jail for relatively minor misdemeanours.

High-profile cases have seen Asbos slapped on an elderly peace campaigner and a woman who kept coming to the door in her underwear.

Louise Casey, head of the Government's Anti-Social Behaviour Unit, said that in every case the orders were issued by courts after lengthy efforts to secure better behaviour by those causing complaints.

She told Newsnight: "Eighty-two per cent of the general public think Asbos are a good thing, and that is because it is common sense.

"We need to tackle anti-social behaviour. We know they are effective because every single place I go in the country, people tell me they are effective.

"And most importantly, the British Crime Survey ... says very clearly that anti-social behaviour is on a downwards trend." - ananova

Alexander Muat - The oldest recipient of an order to date, at 87 years of age, he is, among other things, forbidden from being sarcastic to his neighbours (July 2003) Update: He has since been found guilty of breaking the terms of his order on three separate occasions. Sentencing will take place on 13 November but the judge has already made clear that: "There will be no prison for an 88-year-old-man." (October 2004) statewatch

Control order flaws exposed First interview with ex-detainee reveals a regime that leaves him in despair : Ex-detainee exposes flaws in terror control orders

Audrey Gillan and Faisal al Yafai Thursday March 24, 2005 The Guardian

The bizarre world of the government's controversial anti-terrorist control orders was yesterday revealed when one of the 10 men who had been detained in high-security institutions for more than three years walked into the Guardian offices without any security escort.

Highlighting the stark contradictions in the control orders, Mahmoud Abu Rideh, who had been detained without charge and trial in Belmarsh prison and Broadmoor psychiatric hospital, is kept under house arrest at night, but is able to roam freely under tagging during the day.

The Palestinian refugee, who was held for three-and-a-half years, says he cannot understand the double standards of the order, and said it was further exacerbating his psychiatric difficulties. He has been diagnosed as mentally ill.

In the first interview from any of the 10 detainees placed under control orders, he said: "I go everywhere now - on the underground, buses, the mosque. But I must be home by 7pm. People think I am dangerous, but I am not dangerous. The government is playing games. If I am a risk to security, why are they letting me out to be with people? I wouldn't do anything silly. I am not a dangerous man."

Mr Abu Rideh's control order says he is a key UK-based contact and provider of financial and logistical support to extreme Islamists with connections to al-Qaida. It says: "You belonged to and have provided support for a network of north African extremists directly involved in terrorist planning in the UK, including the use of toxic chemicals."

Mr Abu Rideh denies this is the case.

The control orders were rushed through parliament earlier this month in the face of widespread opposition. The contradictions inherent in them are clear from Mr Abu Rideh's experiences since being released on bail almost two weeks ago:

· He is not allowed to make arrangements to meet anybody, but he can drop in to see anyone if he does so unannounced;

· He cannot attend any pre-arranged meetings or gatherings, but was present at the anti-war demonstration at Hyde Park last Saturday. He says he stumbled across it while playing football in the park with his children;

· He is banned from having visitors to his home unless they are vetted in advance, but he is allowed to arrange to attend group prayers at a mosque;

· He thinks he is being followed on the tube, but if he calls a taxi, no one tails him.

Mr Abu Rideh told the Guardian that his confusion over how the control orders work, and his lack of support, led him to take a drug overdose last weekend. He was taken to Charing Cross hospital after he swallowed 35 tablets and was not released until Monday evening. He says he cannot bear to live under the conditions imposed by the home secretary.

He said: "I only want to kill myself. I don't want to kill anybody else. I am not a danger to anybody else, but this government has made me a danger to myself. It is just as bad to be free with a control order as it is in Belmarsh prison or Broadmoor hospital."

The control orders authorised by the home secretary, Charles Clarke, caused a parliamentary crisis two weeks ago and were only shunted through after 30 hours of ferocious tussling between the two houses and a compromise on the part of the government.

The 10 men include Abu Qatada, the Islamist preacher who has been described by a judge as a truly dangerous individual who was "at the centre of UK terrorist activities associated with al-Qaida".

At the time of the parliamentary debate, the Home Office said that the 10 released men were still a risk to national security. This week, lawyers for Mr Abu Rideh and the other men began a legal challenge to the control orders. They told a high court judge that the orders were confused and difficult to work with, saying: "It has been continuous crisis management for the past 10 days."

Yesterday, Mr Abu Rideh explained some of these problems. "The conditions are too complicated and they don't work. The Home Office emergency number doesn't work. I phoned Fulham police station and they said it's not their problem," he said. He claims that the voice recognition system operated by the tagging company, Premier Monitoring Services, does not work and the Guardian found that the Home Office control order hotline was an answering machine. Mr Abu Rideh is so frustrated that he has threatened to take direct action similar to Fathers4Justice. He said: "I will go to Big Ben and make a demonstration, I will chain myself to the railings of the high court or the House of Commons. My lawyer has told me not to, but if I don't get justice I will."

The transition from being in Belmarsh and then in a hospital with the criminal mentally ill to being at home with his wife and five children is prov-ing to be fraught. "I think they will arrest me again. My kids worry that when they get back from school I will be gone and they might not find me again. My wife can't sleep. She is asking me not to go out."

Surprise searches by Scotland Yard officers leave his family on edge, he said, and his wife sleeps fully clothed in case of any eventuality. He complained that officers rifled through his wife's underwear drawer. "That's wrong in anybody's culture," he said. "I asked them, What are you searching there, do you think I have a bomb in my house, do you think I would kill my kids?"

But the most frustrating thing of all is that, despite being called an international terrorist by the government, he has never been told where he crossed the line.

He said: "I want to talk to whoever locked me up. Talk to me. Tell me, why? See my face, see my body. But I can't find anybody to talk to me."

A spokesperson for Premier said the company could not discuss individual cases.

Now happy hour ends with 'martial law'

By David Bamber (Filed: 19/06/2005) - Ministers have ordered the Army on to the streets to join an all-out summer campaign against anti-social drunken and violent behaviour by yobs. Military police and ordinary uniformed soldiers will help keep youths under control in up to 20 towns and cities near military barracks. More than 230 locations have been listed for special police measures. The strategy comes as police forces in more than 230 towns and cities begin a clampdown on disorderly behaviour by alcohol-fuelled youngsters, in response to a Home Office survey showing a disturbing rise in youth crime.

Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, has asked the Ministry of Defence to support police forces around the country after an experiment in Royston, Hertfordshire, where uniformed Redcaps - military police - were deployed to crack down on late-night violence by drunken yobs. As well as dealing with off-duty soldiers from a nearby base, they targeted civilians in the non-garrison town.

Their patrols were judged a success and the Redcaps are now seen regularly on the streets, alongside Hertfordshire beat police, in the small market town, where local officers have welcomed them. One officer said that although the military police are armed only with a baton similar to that used by ordinary police, their uniforms and military training deter antics from getting out of hand.

Until this experiment, military police, who have the same powers of arrest as ordinary police officers, have patrolled only in major military centres such as Aldershot, Colchester and Catterick. Now regular patrols will begin in towns and cities near military bases.

A spokesman for Liberty, the civil rights organisation, expressed concern. She said: "Until now the Armed Forces have only been used on the streets of Northern Ireland in recent years and we need to be very careful about using them on the mainland in peacetime."

A senior Ministry of Defence official said: "We do not expect hundreds of troops on the streets but we would think the very presence of unarmed troops will deter bad behaviour."

Ordinary soldiers have no powers of arrest and will not directly intervene in boisterous behaviour, but will act as a "calming and pacifying" influence, say Home Office officials. They would only intervene directly in the unlikely event of widespread civil disturbance. Military police are fully trained to deal with civilian disturbances.