The Faulks Review of Administrative Law does not seem to have gone the govenment’s way. There are a couple of telling paragraphs in the conclusions: While the Panel understands the disappointment about recent court defeats …. disappointment with the outcome of a case… is rarely sufficient reason to legislate more generally. And: .. respect by… Read more
Category:
Constitution
Voting as a privilege for those with the right photo ID
The Guardian reported on Thursday that: The supreme court is to hear a challenge to the government’s decision to hold voter ID trials in 2019 in a case that could have implications for the wider rollout of the scheme. And that: Cat Smith, shadow minister for democracy, said: “Voting is a fundamental democratic right, not… Read more
Money issuers are in charge
I think this Australian point of view needs to be better known because it is really not Covid related. In fact the government’s supposed lack of debt control has been called out. Now this is in a country with very, very few Covid cases and whose economy has not been ‘destroyed’ by it. So we’re… Read more
Government hung Police out to dry in Clapham
It is interesting that the most egregious strong arm tactics by a largely male police force on women conducting a vigil in Clapham are being defended by two other women, both of whom are their superiors and so presumably authorised the tactics in the first place. One was Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Helen… Read more
Good Law Project 1 – Government Nil
Good news is currently pretty limited but the High Court decision that the Health Secretary should have published all his PPE contracts. is certainly some. It found that: “The Secretary of State acted unlawfully by failing to comply with the Transparency Policy” and that “there is now no dispute that, in a substantial number of… Read more
Swearing for Constitutional Change
The United States oath of office for members of Congress is as follows: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without… Read more
Remarkable revelation on privatised services
From David Hall, founder of the Public Services International Research Unit at the University of Greenwich: I’d call this not ‘croneyism’ but corruption as it ensures, when new tenders are required a select few companies are already on the inside track……. Read more
The EU/GB agreement may not be approved before April – or ever…
Tony Connolly of the Irish Television network RTE has disclosed that the EU member states want to extend the Brexit agreement deadline from the end of February to some time in April. This could be of interest to Johnson, already seemingly throwing his weight around with regard to labour and tax laws, which he seems… Read more
Input legitimacy not output legitimacy…
There is searing stuff (below) from Meg Russell, Professor of British and Comparative Politics at University College London, and previously on the House of Lords standards committee: I couldn’t agree more: Indeed, even Murdoch’s Times is pretty sniffy (click to enlarge): With Keir Starmer recently speaking about plans for a convention on constitutional change I… Read more
Health is made at home, hospitals are for repairs
Is the wonderful title of an article, concerning his own book, in the ‘New Local’ by Nigel Crisp former CEO of the NHS, and now a crossbench peer. He says: I argue in the book that we need to think about health differently and recognise that health creation plays an important role alongside health services… Read more