RIP 42-days?

Nicholas

I'm not convinced. Forcing through the Parliament Act is just the sort of stunt one could expect from Brown. He is stubborn and vindictive. Watch this space.

Ian C

And he burned all that political capital just to drop it?. If true, it will not go unnoticed for the next awkward meausre he has to get past his party. Another top piece of dithering by the ditherer in chief.

Marian C

I agree with you Nicholas, it would be 'just the sort of stunt one would expect from Brown'. The man is an utter control freak

The Laughing Cavalier

At a time like this, with the economy facing crisis, McStalin wastes his government's energy by insisting on forcing yet another undemocratic law on us. The Parliament Act was not designed for this sort of behaviour.

ChrisD

Good week to bury bad news?
Its also the anniversary of the bottled Autumn GE.

David Lindsay

When the House of Lords throws out the scheme to bang people up for six weeks without even so much as charging them with anything, let the bonfire be lit, and let it burn, burn, burn.

Let the fire of liberty consume identity cards, control orders, the admission of anonymous evidence other than from undercover Police Officers, the provision for conviction on anonymous evidence alone, the existing erosions of trial by jury and of the right to silence, the existing reversals of the burden of proof, the provision for majority verdicts (which, by definition, provide for conviction even where there is reasonable doubt), and the provision for Police confiscation of assets without a conviction, stipendiary magistrates, Thatcher’s Police and Criminal Evidence Act, the Civil Contingencies Act, the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act, and the Official Secrets Acts.

And once the fire has done its work, let us rebuild Britain. Where the minimum age for jurors is at least to 21. Where the pre-1968 committal powers of the magistracy, and the pre-1985 prosecution powers of the Police, have been restored. Where we have preventative policing based on foot patrols, with budgetary sanctions against recalcitrant Chief Constables who failed to implement this. Where Police Forces at least no larger than at present, and subject to local democratic accountability, most obviously though Police Authorities, but if appropriate by means of elected sheriffs.

Where each offence carry a minimum sentence of one third of its maximum sentence, or of 15 years’ imprisonment where that maximum sentence is life imprisonment. Where cannabis is a Class A drug, with a crackdown on the possession of drugs, including a mandatory sentence of three months for a second offence, six months for a third offence, one year for a fourth offence, and so on.

And where a Bill which runs out of parliamentary time is lost at the end of that session.