Nick Clegg signals in speech that control orders to go

In the Hugo Young lecture at The Guardian‘s offices, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg all but confirmed that control orders are to go when – in pre-prepared comments in the middle of the speech – he said:

Old progressives pose a trade-off between individual liberty and national security. But, for liberals, liberty is the guarantor of our security. It is a false trade-off.

For old progressives, national priorities will automatically trump individual freedoms.

By contrast, the Coalition Government has already halted ID cards, and set out plans to regulate CCTV and end the indefinite storage of innocent people’s DNA. We will also shortly be published the results of our counter-terrorism review.

Voluntarily raising the issue of civil liberties, disdaining the false trade-off between liberty and security – and then leaving hanging at the end of the section the reference to the forthcoming review – combined would not be what someone knowing that control orders may continue would choose to do.