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Sweeping constitutional reform

08:38 / 13.06.03

Read all about it.

I don't quite know what to make of this... one one hand, it seems very sensible to separate the judiciary from Parliament, and if abolishing the post of Lord Chancellor is part of that, I won't be sorry to see it go. But the rather ill-defined nature of the reforms, and the way they seem to have been announced out of the blue (no consultation whatsoever, apparently) makes them seem ad-hoc and badly thought out. Stuff like this is especially worrying:

The sense that the changes had been rushed was heightened by Lord Falconer, who said, as he stood side by side with Mr Blunkett at the public launch of the reforms, that he could not go into any finer points. "Now is not the time for the detail," he said.

So what it basically comes down to is that we get a supreme court instead of the law lords... I just wish they'd thrash out the details before announcing stuff like this; it makes me worry that we'jll just end up with another disaster like the reform of the Lords. The potential for further problems with appointments to the supreme court is concerning me as well - I shall be astonished if an 'independent statutory judicial appointments commission to recommend candidates for appointment as judges' turns out to be independent...

Perhaps it's an indictment of the government that even when they announce a move like this, with which I basically agree, I cannot help looking for the holes and the cover-ups.

10:09 / 17.06.03

Reshuffle descends into farce

I know no one else really cares about this, but I am finding the whole business simultaneously very amusing and very worrying and am therefore going to talk about it anyway... No one comes out of it well - the government look slapdash at best, Blair comes across as domineering and contemptuous of Parliament - and even his own Cabinet; the Tories, especially in the Lords look vindictive; and Lord Falconer still has to wear tights and sit on the woolsack every afternoon.

But what I think it does demonstrate, quite clearly, is that the Blair administrations have a worrying tendency to announce policy without making sure of the details first - which makes them look incompetent - and even that many members of the government, including Blair himself, just don't understand constitutional affairs. Blair has no respect for such things anyway - it's well known that he prefers the House of Lords as it is, stuffed with unelected placemen and a few hereditary peers. But this reform boggles the mind really - how could an administration which is supposedly astute when it comes to the media have possibly announced such an important set of reforms in haste and without knowing the details? Is it because they've got used to being able to over-ride objections after the recent war? Are they arrogant, or stupid, or both?

ONLY NICE THINGS

10:44 / 17.06.03

I'm going to go for "arrogant", myself. The absence of a credible opposition is doing terrible damage to Parliament all the time. And it is making Blair feel utterly invulnerable - I think the debate on the Gulf War might have felt to him like his last pass through the scouirging fire, and that he is now set fair to do whatever he wants.

And, once again, the Tories are mishandling it - demanding that TB break an appointment not just with a foreign leader, but the leader of a nuclear nation with a potentially vital role in the Middle East. Not to mention the leader of a country with a significant number of cultural and family ties to a section of the British public many of whom already suspect that Parliament does not think much of them...

It's an utter shambles. However, I think TB was probably expecting that the voters would ultiamtely not care, and I have a nasty feeling that to a very great extent he may be right.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

11:12 / 17.06.03

I think Haus' last paragraph is right on the money...
I've never understood Cabinet reshuffles. It's like, "well, you were so good/bad at dealing with schools, that puts you in a perfect situation to deal with social security/law and order/Northern Ireland/foreign policy".
Surely in the non-ministerial arena, you'd need some kind of qualification to get a JOB in a specialist field. But to be in charge of it... nah, you don't need to know shit.
Yeah, Derry was an overpaid, pompous old prick. But he did actually do some good.
I get a kind of smug satisfaction in watching him go, but... what? you mean Blunkett's STILL THERE?

Oh my god.

I'm gonna go hide under the covers for a bit.