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| Britain |
| Gordon Brown makes phone call to 7/7 bomb victim family |
| 2008-06-15 |
| Gordon Brown made a moving phone call to the wife of a victim of the July 7 bombings in the wake of his Commons victory to hold terror suspects for 42 days. The PM telephoned Jan Brown, whose husband Andy lost both legs in the outrage which claimed 52 lives in 2005. The mother-of-three was having a coffee at home when she picked up the phone to hear the words: "Hello, Jan. It's Gordon Brown." The PM called Mrs Brown after she sent an emotional email to thank the PM for refusing to cave in to MPs over new powers to hold terror suspects for up to 42 days - instead of the current 28 days. Jan, 51, said last night: "I couldn't believe my ears. The PM said he had been moved by my email and wanted to phone me personally and thank me. I was amazed he'd taken the time to call me. It came totally out of the blue," said Jan, who lives in the Wirral. In her email, Jan told the PM how grateful she and her husband were that he had shown "determination against all the odds" to win the vote and thanked him for standing up for the victims of terror. She explained how her family were left suffering a "life sentence" in the aftermath of the July 7 bombings in London. Jan said: "I told him that I was angry that do-gooders with no idea how terrorism devastates lives should not be allowed to win the argument. "After the bombings my children and I waited at my husband's bed in hospital for 85 days, not knowing if he going to live or die. Three years on we're still suffering. Gordon said that he had thought long and hard over his support for 42 days and believed it was right to give the police extra powers. He said wanted to do all he could to prevent further attacks and make sure no other families suffered as we had." Details of the conversation emerged after top Tory David Davis quit to launch his crusade against the 42-day limit, to the anger of his Tory colleagues. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #2 He did but they didn't want to go off the dole ... |
| Posted by: Steve White 2008-06-15 13:16 |
| #1 Being a Labourite, I'm surprised he didn't then offer every person in a five mile radius a government job. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2008-06-15 09:32 |