Vivienne Westwood blasts government's stance on terrorism suspects

By Joelle Diderich, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PARIS - Rebel British designer Vivienne Westwood on Monday used her catwalk show in Paris as a platform to protest a British government push to extend the number of days that terrorist suspects can be detained without charges.

Westwood sent models down the catwalk wrapped in T-shirts and silk blankets printed with "56" - the maximum number of days the government reportedly wants to hold terror suspects, doubling the current limit.

After the display, she launched a stinging attack on Prime Minister Gordon Brown, amid growing speculation that he will call an early election.

"I'll be voting against him, definitely. Anything to get him out," said Westwood, who is best known as one of the founders of the punk movement in the 1970s.

Britain's Home Office said that, while a 56-day limit on such detentions has been widely reported, no formal proposal was ever made and that officials are still trying to determine how much longer they would like to hold terror suspects.

Brown, whose second full day in office was marked by a failed terror attack in London, set out plans in July for tough new anti-terrorism laws, saying police need greater powers to hold and question suspects in increasingly complex and global plots.
Currently, suspects need to be charged or released within 28 days.
Westwood accused the British leader of behaving like a "tyrant" and said the measures would not help to protect British citizens against terrorism.
"We need people (in court) in front of the law - this will protect me," she said.

The designer has a history of mixing politics and fashion. For several years, she has been calling for the release of Leonard Peltier, an American Indian Movement activist convicted of killing two FBI agents in a shootout on a South Dakota reservation in 1975.