The Highest Court in the Realm

Today, the House of Lords handed down the last judicial decisions it will ever make.  That is because the UK is getting a supreme court.  Since the Middle Ages, the highest court in the UK was the House of Lords, which is also the second legislative house of Parliament.  Twelve senior judges sit in the Lords and handle all the legal appeals that come before the body and these twelve jurists are known as the Law Lords.  These twelve, and only these twelve, are allowed to rule on judicial cases.  As members of the House of Lords, the twelve Law Lords can participate in debates and vote on legislation.  However, most wait until after they retire from the legal profession to participate in the legislative affairs in the Lords.

All of that changes in October when the UK Supreme Court starts to hear cases.  In accordance with the Constitutional Reform Act of 2005, The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom will take over the legal function of the House of Lords.  The current Law Lords will become the first justices and succeeding justice will be appointed by the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister.  One key feature will be that, unlike the U.S. Supreme Court, proceedings of the UK Supreme Court will televised.

Every political system has its anachronisms(The goings on in the U.S. Senate come to mind), but some countries seem to be able to reform their systems when the need arises.  The UK seems just such a country.

BHO...

WTF.

Mr. President, if you do not think that the institutions that enshrine the values of our democracy our sufficient to tackle the demands posed by modern terrorism then what is the point of trying to defend those institutions?   

The End of this Affair

Back in late November Conservative MP Damian Green was arrested in an investigation into leaks of government secrets.  Recently prosecutors announced the Mr. Green will not face any charges in the matter.

The ending to this affair is a major embarrassment for a lot of people.  Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, continues to face questions about her job performance and about the relationship between the Home Office and police officials.  As polls continue to indicate that Labour is getting ready to drive off an electoral cliff it continually appears that the Home Secretary is helping to steer the party into oblivion.

Scotland Yard continues to reel.  The Green affair and accusations of misconduct and abuse towards protesters at the G20 summit continue to put the police under a harsh light.  Some serious reform might be in order for Scotland Yard.

Speaker Michael Martin and House of Commons staff also do not come of well because they did not do a good job protecting the rights of Parliament or MPs.  One of the main jobs of the Speaker is to protect the privileges of  the Commons and its members.  There is some question about whether the Speaker will stand at the next election.  This episode may sway his mind towards standing down.

Damien Green the Tory MP whose arrest started this whole affair perhaps summed it up best when he said "I cannot think of a better symbol of an out of touch, authoritarian, failing government that has been in power for for too long."  That is why it looks like there will be sweeping changes next spring.

 

Brown's Reelection Hopes are Smeared

Over the weekend Damian McBride a top aide of Prime Minister Gordon Brown resigned because a blogger known as Guido Fawkes leaked e-mails in which McBride discussed using the internet to spread rumors about leading Conservatives.  The rumors included accusations of drug use, frequenting prostitutes and affairs between MP's, and were aimed at leading Tories including David Cameron and shadow chancellor George Osborne.  Even worse is that the wives of Cameron and Osborne are also thought to have been targets of the smear campaign.

Tories are outraged and are demanding apologies and thinking about lawsuits.  LabourParty officials are telling Brown that this could be the final straw that ensures a defeat in the next General Election.  Loyalists to former Prime Minister Tony Blair claim that they also were smeared by unknown people in the Labour Party.  

This scandal hit close to home for Brown.  Not only are some of his top political advisors implicated but Cabinet Office Minister Tom Watson is also mentioned in the leaked e-mails.  

It is sad but it seems like there is little hope for Brown to win reelection because he is his own worst enemy.  From the failure to call an early election in the summer of 2007 to getting involved in a smear scandal right after hosting a pretty successful G20 summit, it appears that Gordon Brown will go down in history as the prime minister who could pull defeat from the jaws of victory.  

Gordon's Bad Day

In preliminary meetings before the G20 economic summit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel ruled out Prime Minister Gordon Brown's idea for a full integrated international economic recovery plan.  Chancellor Merkel believes that time is needed for a 50 billion euro stimulus package passed by the Bundestag to work and that any further stimulus package needs to be done by national governments and not international bodies.  This is a minor setback for President Obama and Treasury Secretary Geithner who support an integrates stimulus plan.

However, this is a huge setback for Gordon Brown and his Labour government.  With an election due within a year and the Conservatives holding double digit leads in most polls, Brown saw financial recovery as the key to his reelection.  This lead to a bit of unintentional parliamentary humor when Brown claimed to save the world.

Brown's popularity briefly saw a leap in the fall when he first launched his effort to save the world's financial markets but as the British economy has tanked and Labour's popularity continues to fall.  Brown is already unpopular because he inherited Tony Blair's unpopularity over the Iraq War.  Brown is also unpopular because as Chancellor of the Exchequer he designed many of the policies that are viewed as leading to the economic meltdown.  Add to this Brown's reputation for being indecisive and you have the recipe for a major electoral defeat.

If you are a Gordon Brown fan(like liturgygeek) then pay close attention to him during the next year because it looks like that is all he has before he moves off the world political stage and David Cameron moves on.

Henry VIII Rolls Over in His Gave...

...And Somewhere Thomas More Smiles

For the first time since the Reformation a Catholic Bishop is poised to sit in the House of Lords.  Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor will soon retire as the Archbishop of Westminster.  After his retirement Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor will be offered a peerage.

The 26 Church of England Bishops sit in the Lords and form the Lords Spiritual.  Free Church ministers and the Chief Rabbi often sit in the House of Lords as Lords Temporal.

 

Banned in the UK

UK Home Secretary Jacqui Smith decided to ban hate preacher Fred Phelps and his daughter from entering the UK.  The Phelps were planning on picketing a college's performance of The Laramie Project, which is play based on the murder of Matthew Shepherd.  The Home Secratery used her power to prevent the Phelp's entry just as she earlier banned a right wing Dutch MP fro entering the country because he made anti-Muslim statements.  The UK says that it is dedicated to fighting extremism that causes violence.

As a staunch supporter of free speech, I agree with the leader of the UK gay rights group that called Phelps "odious" but disagrees with the decision to ban him from entering the UK.

However, I can't help but feel a twinge of joy anytime someone like Phelp's gets slapped down a little bit.   

U.S. Threatens UK Justice?

Binyam Mohamed is a former resident of the UK and is currently a prisoner at Guantanamo.  Mr. Mohamed was arrested in Pakistan because British and U.S. intelligence thought that he was an accomplice in the Jose Padilla "dirty bomb" plot.  In an effort to extract a confession, Mr. Mohamed was sent to Morocco and Afghanistan through extraordinary rendition where he was tortured.  In early 2003, the U.S. imprisoned Mohamed in Guantanamo.  In May of 2008 Mr. Mohamed was charged in the Padilla plot but the US withdraw the charges in October.  Read a good summation here. 

In the UK, Mr. Mohamed's attorneys filed a motion to gather information from the UK government about their client's treatment.  Two UK high court judges released a summation of  Mr Mohamed's treatment that was based on information the U.S. shared with UK intelligence agencies.   The judges ruled that the evidence indicated that Mohamed was tortured or treated in a cruel and inhuman fashion.

However, the judges redacted that summary at the request of UK Foreign Minister David Miliband.  He argued that disclosing the information might harm UK security.  UK Channel 4 news acquired letters that US State Department legal advisor John Bellinger wrote to the UK Foreign Office that says that disclosure of the information about Mohamed's torture could threaten " the U.S.-UK intelligence sharing relationship, and thus the national security of the UK."

The Obama administration currently supports the actions of the previous Secretary of State and her legal advisor regarding this case.  That is simply an unacceptable position.  Hiding our conduct at Guantanamo is not protecting vital state secrets; it is covering up a crime.  President Obama has so far done a good job stepping U.S. policy back from the criminal excesses of the previous 7 years.  However, he needs to go further and do as the UK judges recommend and put the information about Binyam Mohamed in the public domain.

Andrew Sullivan  and David Rose at Vanity Fair do a good job reporting on this story.

Classic Backbencher

John McDonnell is the Labour MP representing the constituency of Hayes and Harlington, which includes Heathrow Airport.  Many of Mr McDonnell's constituents will be displaced or otherwise inconvenienced by the government's plan to add a third runway.  During a debate on the proposal, Mr. McDonnell grew so incensed that in an act defiance he grabbed the ceremonial mace and placed it on an empty bench.  This little act of rebellion caused Mr. McDonnell to be suspended from the House of Commons for 5 days. 

Perhaps this was a futile gesture but it was one that we can all admire.

UK Update

Gordon Brown's government announced  that it will go ahead with plans for a 3rd runway at Heathrow, and as an added bonus there are SUPERTRAINS involved in the plan.

Improving Presidential Transitions

President-elect Barack Obama likes to point out that we only have one president at a time.  However, Rep. Barney Frank(D-MA) likes to point out that Obama is over estimating the current number of presidents we have.  

One of the problems we have is structural.  The constitution leaves us with a lame duck period of 2 1/2 months.  One of the reasons for such a long period is the president is responsible for filling so many executive branch positions.  It's not just the cabinet and white house staff that Obama must nominate but the president is ultimately responsible for filling about 7,000 positions.

My suggestion would to be to increase the civil service so that the president is responsible for appointing only the top officials in each department.  My idea is very much like the British model in which the prime minister appoints only a handful of government ministers, and top civil servants compose the rest of the top levels of a UK government ministry.   For example, in the UK Foreign Office there are 6 ministers while the rest of the FO is composed of civil service career diplomats.  I think the US system would do well to copy this model.  It would make a lot more positions free of political considerations while ensuring that the top levels of out government are staffed by career professionals and not political appointees of varied quality.

I realize that there is danger of putting too much power in the hands of unelected civil servants are who not directly accountable to the electorate.  However, the benefits are many and they include a US version of the BBC satire Yes, Minister.  We could call our version Yes, Secretary.