The Inquiries Act

Once more our Government demonstrates its concern about human rights and Justice...

Rushed into law on April 7, the last possible day before parliament was dissolved, the act gives ministers powers to exclude the public from all or part of an inquiry, to control publication of the final report, to restrict the publication of documents, to insist on the omission of crucial evidence from the final report "in the public interest", and even to sack the chairman or a member of the inquiry panel.

The act abolishes the Tribunals of Inquiry (Evidence) Act 1921, which guarantees independence by giving inquiry chairmen a free hand in all important decisions.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/humanright...464430,00.html

[Tezcatlipoca]

Crap, but to be expected of Blair & co.


Some Judges speak out...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpo...470198,00.html

[Xaccers]

All I can say is I hope the tories and lib dems win enough seats to erode labour's majority if they can't oust them from power.

[Chris W]

Originally Posted by Matt D

Crap, but to be expected of Blair & co.


Some Judges speak out...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpo...470198,00.html

one of the judges quoted in that article is my uncle

[Pierre]

Just another example that this government have manifested themselves into Orwells Pigs.

You need no more evidence that this is not a Labour government. I don't know what they should call themselves but they are not Labour.

[Monster Jedi]

Originally Posted by monkeybreath

one of the judges quoted in that article is my uncle

Is he a monkeys uncle then

[BBKing]

Quite right, Pierre. Throw in the CCA and the anti-terrorism legislation and it all looks part of a very unpleasant pattern.

What's interesting is that this didn't start until the second Labour administration - the first (1997) lot with Straw in the Home Office and Irvine as Lord Chancellor actuallsy swung the other way, in favour of human rights, the rule of law and judicial independence. Falconer and Blunkett are therefore the bad boys here, particularly Blunkett, who has deeply authoritarian instincts akin to those in Burma or Belarus.

Blunkett was on Radio 5 again yesterday afternoon with that smarmy spurs supporting git Simon Mayo - he's been on there about three times since he was forced to resign in disgrace, and always gets a worryingly easy ride (particularly on ID cards, which he blatantly lies about every time I hear him). I'm not sure it's in the BBC's charter to rehabilitate Tony Blair's friends.

According to Private Eye, Blunkett has earned £70,000 since resigning from these appearances and other media work. Coincidentally that's the rental he hasn't paid on his ministerial house, which he's allowed to live in rent-free by Mr. Tony. Didn't see that one in the Labour manifesto - get caught breaking the rules and get a free house. I must try fiddling my expenses and see if it works for me.

[Stuart]

Once again our government proves that it considers the words open, honest and fair to be meaningless buzz words.

This is bad.

[Kevin]

Yeah lets get the tories in....hahahaha the same set of idiots who gave you the poll tax, who introduced you to the word reccesion, who closed all our manufacturing output, yay! lets get them in.......get real.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Kevin

Yeah lets get the tories in....hahahaha the same set of idiots who gave you the poll tax, who introduced you to the word reccesion, who closed all our manufacturing output, yay! lets get them in.......get real.

As opposed to the party that carried on Tory traditions (ie, new Labour), changed the employment laws to make outsourcing easier, reduced disability living allowance (or at least made it harder for the disabled to claim) and increased council tax?

Actually, this thread isn't about those policies. It's about the government hiding it's own procedures from the public (thereby reducing the chance the public will catch them doing something dodgy, like, say, going to war illegally) while making noise about being open, honest and transparent about how it works.

What do you think of these changes?

[BBKing]

Yeah lets get the tories in....hahahaha the same set of idiots who gave you the poll tax, who introduced you to the word reccesion, who closed all our manufacturing output, yay! lets get them in.......get real.

That was a Party Election Broadcast by the Labour Party.

Hmm. Manufacturing isn't exactly a sparkling success story under Labour, for that matter. From today's Guardian.

Labour says 2 million jobs have been created since 1997, although they have all been in the service sector. Manufacturing had shed 1 million jobs even before the 5,500 redundancies at MG Rover.

Face it, Labour's economic policy is lifted straight from the Tories, so 'vote Labour, get Thatcher' is still the slogan.

The Tories are indeed idiots, but they aren't going to win, and besides the existence of muppets in opposition isn't a reason not to point out the disturbing trend towards erosion of civil liberties under Labour, which is what this thread is about.

Originally Posted by Kevin

Yeah lets get the tories in....hahahaha the same set of idiots who gave you the poll tax, who introduced you to the word reccesion, who closed all our manufacturing output, yay! lets get them in.......get real.

There are *plenty* of other threads to go to if you want to wave the red flag.

[Stuart]

Wonder how long this will take to get here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asi...ic/4510521.stm

[Xaccers]

Originally Posted by scastle

Wonder how long this will take to get here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asi...ic/4510521.stm

Well, every new born baby does have the potential to become a criminal, although if their plan works (heck even if it doesn't really!) the thought of being instantly detected would be enough to put most off

[Nugget]

Originally Posted by Kevin

Yeah lets get the tories in....hahahaha the same set of idiots who gave you the poll tax, who introduced you to the word reccesion, who closed all our manufacturing output, yay! lets get them in.......get real.

Personally, I've never been introduced to the word 'reccesion'

However, I've been aware of the work 'recession' for quite a while but, to be fair, that's mostly with regarsd to the state of my hairline