Tag Archives: superinjunctions

16 July 2025 – today’s press releases

  • Lib Dems: Bolster energy security to tackle “stubbornly high” inflation
  • Ed Davey calls for public inquiry into Afghan data leak and unprecedented superinjunction
  • Davey speech warns of Farage’s plan to tie Britain to Putin’s Russia
  • Carmichael to lead parliamentary debate on Global Plastics Treaty

Lib Dems: Bolster energy security to tackle “stubbornly high” inflation

Responding to June’s inflation figure of 3.6%, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said:

These stubbornly high inflation figures are hammering the pockets of households who are still struggling with a cost-of-living crisis that refuses to go away.

The Conservatives’ mismanagement of the economy led us here and now Donald Trump’s senseless trade war and the Government’s wage suppressing jobs tax are only adding to people’s pain.

Only by building an economic coalition of the willing to stand up to Trump’s bullying, scrapping the Government’s jobs tax and bolstering our energy security will we see pressure ease for families across the country.

Ed Davey calls for public inquiry into Afghan data leak and unprecedented superinjunction

Ed Davey has called for a public inquiry into the MOD data leak that put at risk the lives of up to 25,000 Afghans who supported the British campaign in Afghanistan, and the unprecedented superinjunction used to keep it hidden from the public for years.

The Liberal Democrats have criticised the Conservatives’ cloak-and-dagger efforts to protect Ministers’ identities via an unprecedented 600-day superinjunction, only revealed following a concerted effort by the British media to bring the details into the public domain.

The party’s leader, Ed Davey, has called for an urgent public inquiry – to report by the end of the year – which would allow for the level of scrutiny appropriate to the “size and significance” of the data breach and subsequent Government efforts to keep the details hidden from public view.

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PJS/YMA – Ultimately a sensible judgment by the Supreme Court

It is rather disconcerting that, sitting down to write this post, I have to think quite hard about what I can and can’t say. It does seem that free speech is rather trammeled when people can’t talk directly about this case. Those who have bothered to spend a little time googling (try Australian, US and Canadian outlets or a well-known political blog), will know what I am talking about. Those who haven’t, won’t. It’s all a bit strange.

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 20 Comments

Opinion: The PCC are to blame for the Ryan Giggs fiasco

At Conference last September, I proposed a motion that called for new rules to beef up the PCC, making it more independent of newspaper editors and giving it real powers to regulate the wilder elements of the press. The motion called on Lib Dem ministers to act now in the face of a growing number of legal injunctions that were being fuelled by lack of confidence in the regulator. In the long run lack of action would stand to restrict press freedom, I argued, because it would give weight to calls for an illiberal privacy law whereby politicians could …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 25 Comments

John Hemming MP writes: This country has allowed too much secret justice to develop

What Ryan Giggs wished to kept secret was a trivial issue that has been widely publicised as a result of him having the injunction. It was estimated that some 60% of the population knew who he was.

However, last week he started through his lawyers the process of enforcement of the court order. That was being done through getting from Twitter the details of people who had posted entries on Twitter. Anyone who wanted to keep their identity secret could do so. Hence the only targets they would get are people who live in England or Wales and have posted …

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I appear to be in a minority in frowning on blackmail

I’m uninterested in the sex lives of footballers. But I don’t like blackmailers. And I don’t think the law should favour them.

Imagine this situation. Someone threatens to publish information about someone’s private life unless they receive a large pay-off to stay silent. I don’t think the law should say – “go ahead, publish away; you might be convicted of blackmail in the future but there’s no reason why anyone should be able to stop you publishing now if your would-be victim doesn’t pay up”.

I think the law should be able to say, “stop; don’t publish until we’ve sorted out those …

Posted in News | Also tagged | 40 Comments

Was Lib Dem MP John Hemming right to name Ryan Giggs as superinjunction footballer?

The media can now, openly and legitimately, report the name of the Premiership footballer alleged to have had an affair with a former reality show contestant. That the name ‘Ryan Giggs’ is public is down to Lib Dem MP John Hemming, who ‘outed’ the Manchester United star in the House of Commons this afternoon using Parliamentary privilege. As BBC News reports:

Addressing MPs, Mr Hemming said: “Mr Speaker, with about 75,000 people having named Ryan Giggs it is obviously impracticable to imprison them all.”

House of Commons speaker John Bercow interrupted the MP saying: “Let me just say to the honourable

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Andrew Marr’s hypocrisy (not a trace of schadenfreude here, honest)

It’s been one of the worst-kept secrets in the media, and today Andrew Marr finally admitted he was one of the 30 people who’ve taken out a super-injunction to prevent reports of their private life being made public.

The BBC interviewer’s legal action dates back to 2008, and has been credited with popularising the use of super-injunctions, which not only prevent reporting of allegations, but also prevent the injunction being reported. Today’s Guardian reports:

Marr said he felt “uneasy” and “embarrassed” about the use of the high court injunction, which he won in 2008 to suppress reports of an extramarital affair.

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Opinion: Are hyper-injunctions compatible with the Human Rights Act?

“Justice should not only be done, but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done.” That famous aphorism is commonly quoted, though perhaps not in the courts that hand down hyper-injunctions whose very existence is kept secret on the pain of imprisonment. This incredible situation was exposed in Parliament by John Hemming MP, whose work deserves to be widely read.

When you read a hyper-injunction what strikes you is the sheer sweeping arrogance of the way they make themselves almost totally secret. One of the many questions raised these injunctions is how they can be compatible with …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 2 Comments
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