HOME Affairs Minister Wendy Kinnard and Attorney-General William Bailhache were very eager to tell the States yesterday that the Jersey Evening Post was in error when it concluded that a new, but now rescinded, ministerial order gave the police the power to detain suspects for an unlimited period.

Their respective views of the rights and wrongs of the situation were in certain respects convincing – but only up to a very limited point, as a barrage of searching questions and frank contempt from States Members tended to confirm.

Mr Bailhache was on the firmest ground when he pointed out that Human Rights Law and the ancient principle of habeas corpus would override the element of the order which gave police senior officers the power to extend detention by an indefinite succession of 12-hour periods – though, as more than one concerned Member noted, it would be up to a suspect or a lawyer and then a court to ensure that these safeguards came into play.

By contrast, Senator Kinnard was on the thinnest ice when she tried to make light of the issue, saying that it was of no real concern. Problematic or not, the order was withdrawn very quickly indeed when its flaws were revealed.

Moreover, as this newspaper has clearly established, many police officers were under the impression that their rights to detain had been extended indefinitely, even if this was not the understanding of the force’s senior echelon.

Senator Kinnard’s position is that she had no knowledge of junior ranks’ understanding of the situation because she has not had a chance to make the necessary inquiries.

With the best will in the world, it is difficult to see much of this as anything more than ineffectual flannel. As Senator Stuart Syvret said, it would have been far preferable for Senator Kinnard to have admitted that the whole affair was ‘simply an unholy mess’ and, as Senator Jim Perchard suggested, to have dropped the ‘absurd’ assertion that the wording of the order merely meant that more senior officers were authorised to extend detention.

Why certain States Members are unwilling to put their hands up and admit an honest mistake is one of the puzzles of Island politics.

There are, however, more serious matters than Senator Kinnard’s crass mishandling of this affair.

We should be grateful that there is now every prospect of a specific time limit for police detention being enshrined in law. We should be far less happy that the order and the irregularities surrounding its signing cast very substantial doubts over the effectiveness of the checks and balances that are meant to restrain the reckless use of ministerial power.