"So obviously far from any known terrorism profile"

Lord Carlile's otherwise encouraging review of the anti-terrorism laws contains one rather odd finding.

According to the Guardian

"The latest police figures show that ­117,278 people were stopped under section 44 in 2007-08, of whom 73,967 were white, 20,768 were Asian and 15,218 black."

Lord Carlile points to these stop and search statistics as evidence that some people are being pulled over to 'balance the books.'

"I have evidence of cases where the person stopped is so obviously far from any known terrorism profile that, realistically, there is not the slightest ­possibility of him/her being a terrorist, and no other feature to justify the stop."

He describes his own experience of stop ans search "sinister" and "intimidating" and told Radio 4's Today Program:

"I'm a grey-to-brown-haired white male, I'm 5ft 10 ins tall, looking extremely conventional."

Neil Lewington is another chap that fits that description. On the 29th of June he was arrested on an unrelated matter (abusing a train conductor) and turned out to be carrying "viable, improvised incendiary devices," to target "non-British" people.

The police are now warning that the is an increased threat of right wing bombings after "England’s largest seizure of a suspected terrorist arsenal since the IRA mainland bombings of the early 1990s."

Lord Carlile's position, stop and search is ok as long as it is targeted at those who "look like" terrorists, is nonsense on the face of it: you can't tell by looking who the terrorists are. One of them might well be a "grey-to-brown-haired white male... 5ft 10 ins tall, looking extremely conventional."