Shami

Liberty is an important organisation. I’m not a member, and I don’t necessarily agree with everything that it has to say on ID cards, ASBOs and so on. But the civil liberties and human rights lobbying group is an essential part of the argument. If those who govern us were left unchecked, we would be facing 90-day detention without trial for everything from letting road-tax discs run out to putting the rubbish out on the wrong day.

However, I do wonder whether Shami Chakrabarti is the best person to be its face to the world. Which may, I realise, sound bonkers to some. The lawyer, who joined Liberty the day before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, is revered. As the organisation’s director, she has been proclaimed as “probably the most effective public-affairs lobbyist of the past 20 years” by my colleague David Aaronovitch, was declared Communicator of the Year at the 2008 PRWeek Awards and last week appeared on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs.

And for me it was this interview that crystallised the problems with her profile…

Read atTimes Online