There’s been a lot of comment on the web about the detention at Heathrow of David Miranda, the partner of Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald. Whether questioning him was necessary or not is still a matter of debate, but it seems to me that the government has been caught a bit on the back foot by events. If I was writing the press release on behalf of the coalition, here’s what I’d say:

The decision to detain and question Mr Miranda was an operational matter for the police, and the government had no input into that process. We were kept informed throughout Mr Miranda’s detention, but we did not seek to influence the actions of the police in any way.

Clearly, it would be inappropriate to comment on an operational matter while aspects of it are still in progress. However, the incident has led to widespread public concern over this legislation introduced by the previous Labour administration. We will, therefore, be reviewing the law as soon as possible in order to ensure that it better serves freedom and justice for both British citizens and visitors to the UK.