Governments are supposed to have advisors and advisory committees for a reason. Otherwise, it’s like buying a satnav for your car but just driving in the opposite direction to the one it suggests.

The trouble is that governments haven’t had their thinking formed by a close reading of the “Emperor’s new clothes” story. They need to be surrounded by people who tell them their new suit is sumptuously sheer. Any courtier who dares to say, however diplomatically, “My liege, that whole subtle tailoring thing isn’t quite borne out by the evidence of the senses” becomes an ex-courtier pretty quickly.

The Home Affairs Committee of the House of Commons is not remotely impressed by the need for 42 days’ detention for terror suspects. The BBC reported that the committee “saw no evidence that there was a case for extending the pre-charge detention beyond 28 days.”

Committee chairman Keith Vaz said the committee recognised there was a “real and acute” threat from terrorism but said there was a danger Muslims could come to view detention as a form of internment…

Not just Muslims. It is clearly a form of internment, if you accept that “internment” is a euphemism for “locking up people without evidence, so as make martyrs of them and to turn people who culturally identify with them into enemies of the state.”

Former Attorney General Lord Goldsmith was “unequivocal” in opposing the 42 day limit, when  interviewed in the Guardian on 6 December. He said “I thought it was wrong. I thought it was unnecessary and I believe these things are very important.”

Generally, the whole of informed opinion is pretty well clear on the issue. So, whose advice do you think the government will follow?

Or what about Bush? Fingar’s report, published last week, reached the conclusion that there was no evidence that Iran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons. How much ice does a professional intelligence report cut in terms of stopping the development of T.W.A.T. beta 3.1? Probably little enough, unfortunately. The very word “intelligence” probably sends a shudder down the spines of Bush and his associates.

Obviously, the whole point of being an Emperor is that you don’t need to listen to your stronger-willed and more honest advisers. You can just carry on with whatever nude modelling career your stylists suggest. It’s not as if your subjects have votes or anything…