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Selling justice by the pound

admin / May 28, 2013 / Politics / Permalink

To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.

Magna Carta

Any country or Government which wants to proceed towards tyranny starts to undermine legal rights and undermine the law.

Margaret Thatcher

When Chris Grayling was appointed Lord Chancellor in 2012 it raised a few eyebrows. He is the first non-lawyer to hold the post since the seventeenth century. His experience prior to becoming a member of Parliament involved television production, corporate communications and management consulting. It has been suggested that this was not perhaps the ideal background for someone occupying one of the most venerable Offices of State. It is an office that has, until now, been seen as carrying weighty responsibilities relating to the stewardship of key elements of Britain’s Constitution.

In retrospect placing Grayling in the role seems increasingly like a masterstroke, from the perspective of political expediency.

The current agenda entails the removal of access to justice for many through serious cuts in first civil and now criminal legal aid. It also encompasses the contracting out of various components of the justice system to private providers, including the bundling up of services into bigger contracts so they can be of greater benefit to larger corporations.

One might suggest that had we been blessed with a Lord Chancellor with any significant sense of, or respect for, the delicacies of the British Constitution, the English Legal System or the rule of the law, then this agenda might not be pursued with quite such vigour or relish. There would be a greater appreciation of the profound risks inherent in current policy directions. Whether the issue is Mr Grayling’s personal enthusiasm for the agenda or simply that he doesn’t have the sort of legal sensibility needed to repel overenthusiastic civil servants in the MoJ is a moot point.

Today the latest instalment in the agenda has been floated in the newspapers. Continue Reading →

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Hilton’s horrors

admin / January 16, 2013 / Politics / Permalink

I keep returning to Steve Hilton’s comments on the rigidities and redundancies of the senior civil service, as reported in the Sunday Times. It all strikes me as a bit rum.

Hilton was making three main points. First, that members of the Government were only finding out about some policy announcements from the media. And once they found out they didn’t necessarily agree with what was being announced on their behalf. Second, Hilton conveyed his sense that the main purpose in life for the Mandarinate is to frustrate ministers’ desires for action and change. Third, there is much activity and many decisions are taken, with accompanying mountains of paper being generated, but only a minority of it (30%) is controlled by Ministers and relates to delivering on the Coalition agreement. Hilton suggests that a similar proportion relates to “random things” and, for good measure, fully 40% of activity represents Government implementation of EU regulations. Continue Reading →

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Nick Clegg, liberalism and leadership

admin / December 20, 2011 / Politics / Permalink

The speech on the open society Nick Clegg gave at Demos yesterday started with a brilliant encapsulation of the problems facing our society:

But our politics and economy are distorted by unaccountable hoards of power, wealth and influence: media moguls; dodgy lobbyists corrupting our politics; irresponsible bankers taking us for a ride and then helping themselves to massive bonuses; boardrooms closed against the interests of shareholders and workers. The values of the hoarders are increasingly out of touch with the spirit of openness alive in the UK.

He then went on to argue that these are some of the characteristics of a closed society and that, in contrast, liberalism is about an open society. He is explicitly drawing the idea of the open society from Karl Popper, which clearly signals the intellectual heritage, even if won’t necessarily resonate with many voters.

Clegg’s version of the open society has five “vital features”: (i) social mobility; (ii) dispersed power in politics, the media and the economy; (iii) transparency, and the sharing of knowledge and information; (iv) a fair distribution of wealth and property; and (v) an internationalist outlook.

This is contrasted with the “closed society” in which a child’s opportunities are decided by the circumstances of their birth, power is hoarded by the elite, information is jealously guarded, wealth accumulates in the hands of the few, and narrow nationalism trumps enlightened internationalism.

At this level of generality this description of a liberal society would no doubt gain the approval of many, not just those in the Liberal Democrats who crave clearer differentiation between the party and the Conservatives. But, while the speech was positive overall, it left me wanting more. Continue Reading →

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Democratic deficits

shodanalexm / July 24, 2011 / Economics, Politics / Permalink

Liberal democracy faces profound challenges. Radically different future trajectories present themselves. We are living through momentous times.

In Britain the media has spent the last fortnight preoccupied with the Hackgate scandal. Incremental, and ongoing, revelations have exposed the inner workings of the nexus between Westminster politicians and the tabloid media. What we witness is the political class showing an alarming level of deference to powerful economic interests. The alleged intimate connection between sections of the Metropolitan police and the tabloids raises equally urgent questions about the prevailing culture and ethics at the heart of a core social institution.

The British media has been preoccupied with this evolving soap opera involving many of its own. And the scandal has certainly opened up a welcome window of opportunity to reform relationships vital to a healthy democracy. But events unwinding elsewhere are likely to play a bigger role in shaping economic and political trajectories in the short and medium term. Continue Reading →

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Greece and the augurs of global disaster

shodanalexm / June 29, 2011 / Economics, Politics / Permalink

Current events in Greece are genuinely transformational in more ways than one. Clearly the Greek economy is in a heck of a mess. It is not at all obvious whether either of the future directions on offer – eye-watering austerity, on the one hand, or default, exit from the euro and return to the drachma, on the other – offers the better economic route forward for Greece. But it is clear which direction European authorities see as better for the wider Eurozone.

Greek default would create turmoil and render the viability of the Spanish, Italian and Irish economies questionable as creditors sought to reassess and downgrade their holdings of sovereign debt. It would pose serious questions for banks across the Eurozone, in particular in France and Germany. While Greece accounts for a very small component of total Eurozone economic activity it is the symbolic significance of a default – and the profoundly negative chain of events that it could set off – that is feared. Continue Reading →

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Access denied

shodanalexm / June 23, 2011 / Politics / Permalink

Yesterday saw Ken Clarke present the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill to Parliament. While the focus has been on the sentencing U-turns, that is a bit of a sideshow. Any liberal with a concern for rights, and in particular the rights of the relatively less powerful in society, should be deeply concerned. The proposals for reform of legal aid are, by any standard, alarming. David Allen Green has described them as ‘horrific and wrong-headed’. That isn’t hyperbole. Continue Reading →

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Monbiot’s tax take and the embedding of plutocracy: an urgent concern for Liberal Democrats

shodanalexm / February 8, 2011 / Politics / Permalink

We are, it would appear, reaching a political watershed. There is perhaps a small window of opportunity to step back and consider where we think the country is heading. Then it could be too late. I was planning to post in response to George Monbiot’s article in today’s Guardian. But his post, coupled with other developments, raises some profound issues.

Monbiot’s article gives his take on the implications of proposals for what might, at first sight, appear technical changes to corporate taxation. But he argues plausibly – if rather hyperbolically – that the changes represent a major concession to the self-interest of multinational corporations. The net result of the changes will be to allow corporations – and banks in particular – to reduce their liability for UK tax considerably. And this is occurring, of course, at the same time as David Cameron is notably prominent in the media saying that the Government is committed to doing precisely the opposite – making sure that banks pay their share in order to help rebuild the economy. Continue Reading →

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