Hold on Mr Blair
- 28 Feb 08, 04:54 PM
The Metropolitan Police Commissioner that neither the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, nor the Commons Privileges Committee referred the Derek Conway case to him for a possible criminal investigation. One former MP who is a barrister tells me there may be strong constitutional arguments why the police couldn't pursue this case.
Technically parliament itself is a court of law, and so Derek Conway , and so if the police were to investigate Conway and he ended up in an ordinary criminal court, he would effectively be tried twice, and one court would be challenging the verdict of another. Article nine of the 1689 Bill of Rights - the article which establishes Parliamentary privilege - says: "That the freedom of speech and debates or proceedings in Parliament ought not to be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of Parliament." So any outside court considering the Conway could therefore be deemed to be questioning what Parliament has already decided.
No doubt some constitutional anorak will tell me that my former MP friend has got it all wrong, and that this is all bonkers. But maybe not.
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why do you suppose Blair would have done anything?
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To be honest, I'm rather surprised that a senior 主播大秀 political journalist working on parliamenatry affairs needs to be reminded of the continued existence of Article 9 of the Bill of Rights.
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