Lib Dems block Theresa May’s new tough line on extremism

I thought it was too good to be true, although it seemed like an election ploy to sound tough on treason (at last) Last month I posted from the Sunday Telegraph thus: 

The Government is planning a series of tough new measures to combat the growing threat from Islamist extremists. A leaked draft of the Home Office’s new counter-extremism strategy, seen by The Telegraph . . . crackdown is part of a new “get tough” strategy to deal with the perceived growing threat to the UK from Islamist extremists. The Sunday Telegraph understands that it will be published before Parliament is dissolved for the general election at the end of the month but could be implemented immediately….The report is so sensitive it will not be made public in full but a two-page executive summary is due to be published in the next fortnight. 

Oh, no. It’s been ‘quietly shelved’. From the Guardian.

A Home Office strategy to tackle non-violent extremism has been discreetly shelved after Liberal Democrats in the coalition government blocked the proposals as too hardline and an affront to civil liberties.

A leaked copy of the 28-page report, seen by the Observer, reveals a series of measures designed to counter extremism . . .

It is understood that senior Lib Dems refused to approve the strategy, despite promises by the Home Office that it would be published before the general election.

The quiet burying of the heavily-trailed strategy means that there has been no official strategy to counter non-violent extremism during the five-year term of the coalition government, the issue emerging as the final major row between the Tories and lLb-Dems.

The strategy document, A Stronger Britain, Built on our Values, includes a number of proposals to take tougher action against individuals propagating extremism, broadly defined as “vocal or active opposition to British values”.

The strategy’s publication was delayed for months amid arguments about how strongly worded it should be. Sources said it was due to be unveiled at a speech last month by May at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in London.