The case of Willcock v Muckle should be much better known than it is. In 1950 Mr Willcock, stopped by a policeman for speeding, was asked for his ID card. He refused. The case went to the Court of Appeal where the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Goddard, known for his ultra-conservative views, thundered against the idea that the police should be able routinely to demand ID cards for irrelevant reasons. In 1952, 7 years after the end of the war…
The government’s vaccination programme has been one of the government’s undoubted successes. The extensive genome sequencing of the virus and its mutations. The Vaccine Task Force – a team consisting of scientists, NHS staff, a venture capitalist skilled in investing in biomedical companies and others, together with politicians backing them with very significant amounts of public money – which has enabled Britain to invest in the development and production of a range of vaccines. The collective focused efforts of the…
“A basic rule of government is …… never set up an inquiry unless you know in advance what its findings will be.” (Sir Humphrey to Jim Hacker, Yes Minister 1980). The government must have felt confident it was following this golden – if cynical – rule when Lord Faulks QC was appointed to chair the panel inquiring into judicial review. A Conservative justice Minister (now unaffiliated peer). A lawyer who publicly criticised the Supreme Court’s decision on prorogation and who…
One which changes a government’s intended actions or leads it to do something it might not otherwise have done? A few guidelines:- Get the law-abiding on side. Enough of them to make government MPs worry about their majorities. The poll tax riots did not change government policy. But that so many Tory voters were incensed at the proposal did worry Tory MPs and played a big part in Thatcher losing their votes. Little wonder Major ditched an election-losing policy once…
Picture BBC Lord Sumption has said some silly things lately, a reminder that even experts – once they move beyond their expertise – can be as daft as the rest of us. Still, on the issue of the government’s use of powers to bypass or limit scrutiny to the absolute minimum he is absolutely correct. Consider: – 5 hours to debate the Act implementing the UK-EU Trade Agreement, an Act containing a number of Henry VIII powers allowing the government…
In 2020 118 women were killed by men. One death every 3 days. Since Sarah Everard went missing on March 3 another 3 women killed by a male perpetrator. Unless they become a news story we rarely know their names, the majority likely killed by a partner or someone known to them, 70% in the home. Even so, the chances for any individual woman of being killed is low; by a total stranger lower still. The murder rate for men,…
It’s time once again to talk about a key institution: one which politicians feel it necessary to praise and support, whatever their private views, one which many feel we cannot live without, a rather dysfunctional, arrogant one, repeatedly making the same mistakes, mistakes which have caused great harm to those directly affected, repeatedly refusing to learn the lessons and change its ways, hostile to outsiders, an organisation whose senior members rarely seem to bear the consequences of the problems they…
The desire (expressed by some – the WHO, for instance) for Britain to give away vaccines to other countries before we have vaccinated our own population is politically insane and, frankly, immoral. There: I’ve said it. Call me selfish, if you will. But let me explain why I say this. Let’s take the young: they may not have the same risks of dying as older people but they do face the risks of catching Covid which, as my 22 year…