Home Office Before The Beak part 94
There's apparently yet another stinging judicial rebuke to the Home Office over the Afghan hijackers/refugees (delete according to preference). Apparently the HO deliberately delayed granting them leave to remain (well, they delay throwing people out, too, so that's fair) and this decision went right to the top.
The relevant Home Secretary was, of course, David 'Heads Must Roll' Blunkett, now lecturing the world from his grace and favour house on how to run the Home Office. Why do I always find him at the bottom of every bit of vile incompetence in Government? Has there ever been a more damaging Government Minister?
UPDATE
Interesting development - it's our old friend Mr. Justice Sullivan again - the chap who had strong words to describe control orders. From where he's sitting the Home Office must appear to be an old lag and recidivist:
The judge went on: "Lest there be any misunderstanding, the issue in this case is not whether the executive should take action to discourage hijacking, but whether the executive should be required to take such action within the law as laid down by Parliament and the courts."
Blunkett does appear to have
Blunkett does appear to have finally moved out of the "disgrace and favour" bunker next door to the Belgravia Pub, - the Treasury seem set to sell the building:
"Blunkett's £4m Belgravia pad to be put up for sale"
I apologise to the Right
I apologise to the Right Honourable Gentleman. I know how hard it is to find a place in London on just a couple of salaries. How long was he there for in total?
Also, apparently the Afghan thing started under Straw, carried on under Blunkett but it was Clarke who made the decision to ignore the law. Silly old Safety Elephant.
The Madness of John
The Madness of John Reid
This is sort of on topic, being Home Office. There is an excellent quote in this BBC article regarding John Reid:
"Dr Reid has now left the defence ministry to become Home Secretary, where there are also issues of how liberty can be curtailed in the interests of public safety."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4760155.stm
I've cached it in case the BBC edit the article, which they are wont to do.
TB shoots from hip again.
TB shoots from hip again. "Frankly" I really enjoy these ones where he exposes the shallowness of his understanding.
Is there a collection of blairisms to rival the bushisms ? Tho less obviously stoopid, a great similarity.
"The prime minister took the rare step last night of criticising a high court ruling. "We can't have a situation in which people who hijack a plane we are not able to deport back to their country," said Tony Blair. "It is not an abuse of justice for us to order their deportation. It is an abuse of common sense, frankly, to be in a position where we can't do this." (gdn this morning).
The 'common sense is more
The 'common sense is more important than the rule of law' one is an old, old Blairism (and a bloody dangerous one).
What he's doing here, however, is distracting attention from another Home Office cockup (in that they're perfectly at liberty to repatriate him if they follow the rules and Afghanistan is safe (it is safe, isn't it? We won a war there n'all). He's also playing to the tabloids, who won't like this at all.
It is not an abuse of common
It is not an abuse of common sense for the High Court to insist that the executive follow the law of the land even though the government sometimes find this inconvenient. Probably unfair to quote Robert Bolt's A Man For All Seasons on the subject, so let's see what he has the one MP ever to have been canonised say on the subject:
Roper: So now you'd give the Devil the benefit of law!
More: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get to the Devil?
Roper: I'd cut down every law in England to do that!
More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you -- where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat. This country’s planted thick with laws from coast to coast -- man’s laws, not God’s -- and if you cut them down -- and you're just the man to do it -- do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of the law, for my own safety’s sake.