This time, the police and the security agencies stress that they have crucial evidence lacking in the 7 July bombings: unexploded devices that could yield forensic clues. great danger." He added: "We are learning fast, but I am afraid there are bound to be casualties along the way."Just weeks before the 7 July blasts, the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) had downgraded the security threat. Leaked documents also revealed that the security service had concluded Islamist terrorists did not have the capability to mount a major operation in London at the present time.Just as after the first bombing, the investigation into the new attacks has moved at pace. None of the men caught on the CCTV cameras was even known to the police, MI5 or MI6. The Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, had admitted that the first attacks, which cost 52 lives, had "come out of the blue"; now it appears that the latest series had also come as a surprise.Sir Ian Blair, the Scotland Yard Commissioner, acknowledged: "Officers are facing previously unknown threats ... As police yesterday released CCTV images of the men claimed to have made a bungled attempt to repeat the 7 July carnage on Thursday, security chiefs were forced to admit that they had once again been taken by surprise. The second wave of attempted bomb attacks have raised fresh questions over the ability of Britain's intelligence services to prevent terrorist atrocities. The debate is out there in the country and the Government ignores it at its peril."Labour's 1997 election manifesto said: "We are committed to a referendum on the voting system for the House of Commons." But the manifesto for the last election said merely, "a referendum remains the right way to agree any change for Westminster"..

I believe it would be unwise for the Labour government to close the door on this process. He wanted assurances that there was a "real possibility" Labour would hold a referendum on changes to the electoral system, as promised.He wrote: "Not only I, but electoral reformers in general, are concerned at what appear to be shortcomings in the way this review is being approached."If it is to be accepted on all sides as a way forward, and not simply as a tactic for shelving the issue, there are certain criteria that have to be met."He added: "I seek your assurance that there is still a real possibility that this review will lead to the holding of the referendum promised in the 1997 manifesto. He wrote: "The issue of how to strengthen Britain's democracy is all the more important at a time when its very existence is under attack."Lord Lipsey, a Labour peer, insisted a proper review of the electoral system should include open hearings around Britain and a full parliamentary debate on reform. Only Turkey has a majority government with a lower share of the vote."Lord David Lipsey, chairman of the pressure group Make Votes Count, referred to the terror attacks on London in an open letter to Lord Falconer, the Lord Chancellor. In terms of active public consent for government, Britain is almost back in the pre-reform era of rotten boroughs."The society warned that Tony Blair's winning share of the vote was "scarcely higher" than the 34.4 per cent of the vote won by Neil Kinnock in 1992. It was also less than the 36.9 per cent of the vote gained by James Callaghan when he failed to secure a third Labour term in 1979.The report added: "The electoral basis of British government also emerges looking shakier than in most other democratic countries. Campaigners for voting reform demanded that the Government hold an open inquiry into the electoral system as part of an internal review of voting methods by the Department for Constitutional Affairs.

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The Electoral Reform Society has condemned the 2005 general election as "the worst election ever" because of the slim margin of Labour's victory, with just 35.2 per cent of the vote.Almost 40,000 people have signed The Independent's Campaign for Democracy demanding a review of the voting system.The society's report on the election said: "No majority government in British history has rested on a flimsier base of public support; or more accurately, none has since the extension of the franchise in 1918.

Ministers have been warned not to shelve electoral reform after a report said the general election took Britain back to the "rotten boroughs" of the 19th century. It added: "In assessing the risk of an export being used for internal repression, we examine the human rights record of the ultimate end-user of the goods and the exact nature of the equipment to be exported."Where the weaponry wentCountries highlighted by arms control campaigners* CHINA 180 export licences issued, worth £100m.The Foreign Office Human Rights Report warned that Britain "continues to have serious concerns about basic human rights"* INDONESIA 106 export licenses issued, worth £12m. The UK will not issue an export licence if there is a clear risk that the proposed export might be used for internal repression. We exercise special caution and vigilance in issuing licences to countries where there are serious violations of human rights."The report said it was legitimate for governments to use force, as long as it was exercised in accordance with international standards. Again the Government seems oblivious to the potential misuses of arms exports on which it doesn't keep track, and the documented abuses of exports on which it does."But in its annual Human Rights Report, the Foreign Office insisted: "human rights concerns are at the forefront of our assessment of all export licence applications. If the Government is to be serious about putting human rights before profits it must stop selling arms to the world's most repressive regimes." The group also criticised the Government for permitting arms exports to countries such as India and Pakistan in known international hotspots.The spokesman added: "Even this limited record shows that Britain is openly arming human rights abusers, and fuelling tension in some of the world's most unstable conflict zones. The Government must take greater responsibility for where weapons end up after they leave these shores."A spokesman for the Campaign Against the Arms Trade added: "The Governments arms exports figures show many of the countries of concern highlighted in the human rights report benefited from substantial arms exports.