Monday, 5 March, 2007
- 5 Mar 07, 06:42 PM
The attorney general holds a Cabinet post as legal advisor to the government but is also there as guardian of the public interest. Isn't it now time to bring an end this dual - some say conflicting - role?
In the second film looking at Blair's Britain, Jeremy goes back to Northern Ireland - where he cut his teeth as a reporter - to see how the province has changed in the last decade. And ITV announce they are to suspend all premium-rate phone-in shows after recent controversy.
Jeremy is in charge at 2230 on Ö÷²¥´óÐã Two and the website for Monday's programme - you're in charge below...
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Whilst salivating over the prospect of seeing ,what i perceive, as British justice being done & seen to be done in the so called Cash for Honours et al...(we are all aware/know something unusual, maybe illegal has occurred).
Pragmatic commonsense & the Downing St's political machine is very powerful & very much alive & well. Therefore I cannot see this case/cases being successfully prosecuted....Allegedly/reportedly the was found not guilty FOR LACK OF EVIDENCE?...not morally innocent then! I suspect much the same will happen with others helping police with their enquiries!
In this present climate of injunctions.. if this passes the moderator i'll be very surprised!!ouch!
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In case you're wondering why you're not getting many comments, it's probably because the website's broken.
The Talk about Newsnight home page (linked below) hasn't updated since Thursday, and neither have the RSS feed or the "Being discussed now" links.
/blogs/newsnight/
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Lord Goldsmith simply can't be trusted. Presumably his role is to advise the government in the interests of the country. He has been telling the government what it wants to hear - notably in 'legalising' the Iraq war, contrary to UN legal opinion. He is also Jewish as far as I can tell and will do everything he can to muddy the waters around Lord Levy (Friend of Israel) and the Cash for Honours affair. He also scrapped the SFO investigation into the Saudi arms deal. The Attorney General should be independent of the PM, not one of his old Labour Party mates.
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The current controversy that surrounds the Attorney General is a combination of a loss of credibility exemplified by the advice on the legality of the Iraq war and BAe slush fund; and the antiquated nature of our constitution. If separation of powers and establishing clear lines of accountability are the tenets that underpin any democracy, how can we make a case for the Attorney General who is appointed solely by the PM and sits at Cabinet meetings (the executive), sits in the House of Lords (the legislature) and oversees the country's legal system (the judiciary)? Against the background of the above examples, his judgement can not be scrutinised by parliament. While we can not argue any wrong doing other than an inference of dubious independence, the very nature of the office is an open invitation to an abuse of power. He has too many dirty fingers in too many dirty pies
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Cash for honours and the Ö÷²¥´óÐã gagged.
Top of the list in helping the police with their enquires,er i shall repeat that again just in case you missed the gravity of that statement,HELPING THE POLICE WITH THEIR ENQUIRES
Prime minister Tony Blair
Lord Goldsmith
Lord falconer (I think he is in this list)and many others,maybe too many to list,but does anybody not know how this is going to end ?.
clue=there is an old adage that goes like this,where there is a great fortune,there is a great crime. well,where there is a lawyer...yeah,i dont need to spell it out for you,do i.....
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THE ETHIOPIAN MYSTERY?
The identity of the kidnappers of the Brits in the Afar region of Ethiopia clearly seemingly is a mystery, though by now there should have been ample evidence on the ground to identify them; and the lack of clarity - were they really wearing Eritrean army uniforms in an area which had not been subject to incursions previously - seems to be more characteristic of reticence bordering on obfuscation by the British authorities rather than lack of evidence. This, however, leads to just as interesting a question: Who were those kidnapped and what were they doing?
On the surface they appear to have been tourists, and that is the story being promoted by the authorities. But what tourist trail were they following? The traditional tourist trails are a hundred miles or more to the west; encompassing Axum and Lalibella, and possibly the incredibly beautiful Simian Mountains. But the bare strip of land between the Danikil Depression (one of the most hostile places on earth) and the border of Eritrea is just about the least interesting part of Ethiopia; for tourists that is. Not merely is the countryside boring to the point of being depressing, I only went there as part of my work with the aid agencies, but it is also dangerous. Although the local nomadic population, the Afars, are left to their own devices by the government - which sees little potential in the region – they have traditionally been seen as fierce bandits. With no places of real interest and some potential danger, surely no responsible tour operator would have taken ordinary tourists into the region.
Had the group been 50-100 miles to the Northwest I could have understood. The hills in that part of Tigray Province hide significant mineral reserves - not least gold – which may be one reason why the border there is the subject of such dispute with the Eritreans. The Ethiopian government has been in discussion with the major international mining corporations, for more than a decade, about developing the potential there; which surveys show would be worth billions of dollars. With commodity prices at an all time high and Eritrea ‘defeated’ in the proxy war in Somalia now might be the time for some new moves.
But the gold isn’t in the Afar region! The possibility, therefore, might be oil. There are known reserves just off the coast of Eritrea, a few dozen miles away, so the oil reservoir might extend under the Danikil depression. This could be more attractive to the Ethiopian government, and the western oil giants, than the other reserves in the Ogaden – which are too close to the Somali border and as such vulnerable. Mind you, even any finds in the Afar region would still have significant problems finding a suitable route out; where Ethiopia is not merely landlocked but all routes to the sea are blocked by hostile neighbours!
One final possibility is that the narrow strip of land that belongs to Eritrea could be vulnerable, leaving the port of Asab (which, before hostilities, had been the major entrepot for northern Ethiopia) isolated; and open to ‘negotiation’ about access to the sea which was foolishly not undertaken when Eritrea – then Ethiopia’s friend - was allowed to secede.
It will be interesting to see what eventually emerges. Perhaps they really are just tourists who have been singularly unfortunate in their choice of operator!
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Enjoyed Paxman in NI. But what was with the Snow Patrol three-line whip on the soundtrack?
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Brilliant Jeremy last night (14/10) -on the Lord Golodsmith fiasco & the ITV premium lines too. Also loved his report from NI (the whinging comment was funny!. Some spectacular shots :-)
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Forgot to add - loved the school pic of Michael Crick :-))!
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Dear Mr Newsnight
Are we to believe from the discussion on the position of attorney general that there are no more heroes in public life? Those trained in the latin to who can hold in their minds two or three opposing viewpoints in equilibrium at the same time? Who take upon themselves through love of public service the burden of trusteeship?
The little people might want change but then do they understand the calibre of person in high office? How could they when they never had the latin?
Jolly boating weather.
dicky
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Spot on about the reality of the NI economy essentially being public sector driven, also the fact that we run two systems for everything. Who do I vote for if I disagree with income tax or child benefit?
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Aaron#7 - Aren't Snow Patrol from Belfast? Slightly obtuse but understandable...
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