Tag Archives: jack straw

Opinion: a British Bill of Rights should include judicial review of legislation

By Nigel Roberts | Published 10th March 2011 - 11:15 am

British people’s attitude to fundamental rights is deteriorating alarmingly. Liberal Democrats in government have a key opportunity to reverse the trend.

When the incoming Labour Government issued ‘Bringing Rights Home’, in the wake of the UK having the worst human rights record in terms of adverse judgments except Turkey, we all applauded.

But the weasel words of the Human Rights act, which explicitly ruled out judicial review of legislation (as happens in Canada under the Charter, and has happeed in the USA since Marbury -v- Madison) has created a climate where the majority of the British people now think that fundamental …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , | 13 Comments

Votes for (some) prisoners to get a vote in Parliament

By Mark Pack | Published 18th January 2011 - 8:34 pm

The BBC’s Nick Robinson reports:

David Davis and Jack Straw have got their way. The Commons will get the chance to vote – probably in the middle of February – for a motion to defy the European Court of Human Rights on prisoner voting…

The prime minister welcomes the plan for the Commons to hold a debate on whether prisoners should be given the vote as demanded by the European Court of Human Rights and believes that it “could be helpful”, I’m told. David Cameron is said to want as few prisoners as possible to be given the vote and is still

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Posted in Election law, News | Also tagged , | 9 Comments

Fixed-term Parliaments: better by standing orders?

By Mark Pack | Published 14th September 2010 - 10:26 am

Last week Malcolm Jack, the Clerk of the House of Commons, got a little flurry of media coverage for his evidence before a Parliamentary committee considering the proposed legislation for fixed-term Parliaments. “Parts of the government’s plans to bring in fixed-term parliaments are vulnerable to legal challenge” was how the BBC reported it.

It is understandable why that got the headlines, but lurking in the detail are important questions about how Parliament operates and whether its administration is competent. Jack’s evidence, and concerns about the legislation, really fall into three parts.

First, as might be expected from an official whose …

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Posted in Op-eds, Parliament | Also tagged , , , | 11 Comments

Guardian verdict on voting reform: “Mr Clegg spoke for progress; Mr Straw for reaction.”

By Stephen Tall | Published 7th September 2010 - 10:15 am

The Guardian has not always been kind to the Coalition since its formation; still less to the Lib Dems. But its stinging rebuke to Labour’s “opposition for opposition’s sake” — with its attempt last night cynically to torpedo the Lib/Con government’s electoral reform measures — might perhaps give the new party leader pause for thought.

In the topsy-turvy world of Coalition politics, two parties which do not support the alternative vote last night voted to endorse a referendum on it; while the party which pledged to introduce it in its manifesto decided to jettison that promise.

It was an irony …

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , | 17 Comments

LibLink: James Graham – Labour’s accusations of gerrymandering are self-defeating

By NewsHound | Published 31st July 2010 - 6:20 pm

Over at The Guardian’s Comment is Free website earlier this week, Lib Dem blogger James Graham dismissed Jack Straw’s overblown accusations that the Coalition is ‘gerrymandering’, and urged the voting reform bill to receive the more serious scrutiny it deserves. Here’s an excerpt:

Every time a Labour politician uses the word “gerrymandering” a puppy dies. … Gerrymandering is the act of deliberately fixing a boundary in order to give a political party an unfair advantage. Yet the proposed changes will not to lead to any more political interference in the boundary review process. …

One of the main effects of the

…

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged | 50 Comments

Guardian: Labour’s involvement in illegal abduction and torture of British citizens

By Stephen Tall | Published 15th July 2010 - 10:00 am

Today’s Guardian reports the involvement of senior Labour figures, including Tony Blair and Jack Straw, in the illegal abduction and torture of British citizens by the secret services:

The true extent of the Labour government’s involvement in the illegal abduction and torture of its own citizens after the al-Qaida attacks of September 2001 has been spelled out in stark detail with the disclosure during high court proceedings of a mass of highly classified documents.

Previously secret papers that have been disclosed include a number implicating Tony Blair’s office in many of the events that are to be the subject of the

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Thanks Jack: Tory right finds a friend in Labour

By Iain Roberts | Published 30th June 2010 - 8:20 am

Justice Secretary Ken Clarke is calling for cuts in Britain’s prison population, following the agenda set by the Lib Dems and previously opposed by both the Conservatives and Labour.

Those Labour activists still clinging desperately onto the idea that the Lib Dems are mere cheerleaders in the coalition are going to have to twist themselves into yet more contortions – or simply  ignore the facts – as they continue to push their line.

As Jack Straw writes in The Mail:

[David Cameron] has allowed his government’s penal policy to be dictated not by his own common sense but by Justice Secretary

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , | 18 Comments

Clegg makes “impressive” debut at despatch box as DPM, sets out radical political reform plans

By Stephen Tall | Published 7th June 2010 - 9:25 pm

Nick Clegg debuted in front of the House of Commons today in his new role (yes, it is still new: it’s only a month since the election) as deputy prime minister. And he used the occasion to set out how the new coalition government will make good the political reforms radical political reform plans that languished neglected during Labour’s 13 years in government. The government’s plans include:

    * A referendum on the Alternative Vote
    * The right to recall MPs who break the rules
    * Fewer, more equal-sized constituencies

…

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Posted in Parliament | Also tagged , | 19 Comments

Nick Clegg to get his own Deputy Prime Minister’s Question Time

By Helen Duffett | Published 25th May 2010 - 4:08 pm

The Times reports that Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg is to get his own Question Time:

The event, which has the broad agreement of the Speaker but is yet to be signed off by the new government, is likely to take place on Thursdays and be “bolted on” to Business Questions, where the agenda for the Commons is outlined. This will be seen as a sop to the Lib Dems who now sit on the government benches and lose the rights of opposition parties to cross-question the Prime Minister.

Deputy Prime Minister’s Questions will take place once a month rather than …

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Opinion: Cold comfort for the Lib Dems in the dawn of the new politics

By Tom Papworth | Published 15th May 2010 - 2:50 pm

On Thursday night we saw the dynamics of the New Politics unfold.

For the first time, advocates of the Lib-Con pact came face to face with opponents and the general public in a very public forum. On Question Time, Simon Hughes MP and Lord Heseltine defended the new government against a tirade of abuse from Lord Falconer, Mehdi Hasan and Melanie Phillips, while the audience expressed exasperation and dismay. Get used to it. This is the New Politics, and if Cameron and Clegg are to be believed, this is what we have to look forward to …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , | 21 Comments

Blackburn Conservative leaflet stirs up controversy

By Mark Pack | Published 3rd May 2010 - 10:11 am

The Guardian reports:

The Conservatives last night withdrew a leaflet targeted at Muslims that claimed Labour was complicit in “a whole saga of atrocities” in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and Lebanon.

The leaflet, published by Tories in Blackburn, where their candidate, Michael Law-Riding, is up against the justice secretary, Jack Straw, also predicted Straw would be likely to criticise Muslim beards and caps, after he asked Muslim women to remove the veil in his constituency surgeries.

It was distributed carrying the name of the Blackburn Conservative party agent…

A spokesman for the Conservatives stressed the leaflet had not been sanctioned by headquarters and later said

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Posted in Opposition watch | Also tagged , , | 6 Comments

Lords reform: cynicism wins the day

By Mark Pack | Published 15th March 2010 - 12:50 pm

In March, the House of Commons voted in favour of reforming the House of Lords making it either wholly or 80% elected.

In March too, Justice Secretary Jack Straw announced the a draft bill to reform the Lords would be published within weeks.

Only one problem. The first March was in 2007 and the second 2010. Three wasted years when that terribly modern and cutting edge idea of electing the people who sit in our Parliament could have been introduced. But instead we’re left with this political cynicism:

Although the plan is unlikely to become law before parliament is dissolved, Labour strategists

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Was the Iraq war illegal?

By Mark Pack | Published 6th March 2010 - 10:20 am

STV reports:

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg says that the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq War has provided enough information to suggest that the war was illegal.

Speaking on Radio Tay on Friday morning at the same time Prime Minister Gordon Brown was facing questions at the inquiry in London, he said: “I’m not a lawyer, but my view is that now there is sufficient evidence to sustain the claim that this was illegal.”

“A Dutch inquiry into the Iraq war came to the conclusion that it was indeed illegal, and flew in the face of international law…

“It is not a court of

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It’s Brown vs Brown on electoral reform

By Mark Pack | Published 20th January 2010 - 8:28 am

In a weird display of the mutual weakness at the top of the Labour Party, the Prime Minister and Chief Whip are in disagreement over Gordon Brown’s plans to legislate for a referendum on AV (which would be held after the general election).

Earlier this week the Parliamentary Labour Party debated the proposal and ended up divided and without agreement.

Whilst Gordon Brown and, rather surprisingly given his views on the Liberal Democrats, Jack Straw are both in favour, prominent opponents include Chief Whip Nick Brown. He seems to be particularly motivated by fears that under AV he would lose …

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What the papers say…

By Philip Young | Published 1st January 2010 - 4:10 pm

Ministers are trying to get their hands on hospital charity-cash … Labour kick up over calls for an immediate by-election … a quarter of all MPs now  plan to quit … and there are 20,0000 council officers with the powers to search your home.

Tories trying to buy power, says Straw – The Independent, 30.12.09

David Cameron is today accused by a senior Cabinet minister of attempting to “buy” victory at the general election with a US-style campaign dominated by advertising. Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, predicts the Tory campaign will the most lavish in political history and …

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