If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
Sadly we live in a world when politicians rarely look outside the bubble in which they are trapped. You can't blame them really. If they say sorry, their rivals say 'you have failed'. If they admit fault, the ideologues of their respective parties start baying for blood. In a world where your position is only as secure as the amount of time you have spent climbing the greasy pole to political success, little wonder that they feel they can't be honest.
The UKIP successes in these local elections are influential in the short term. However, the long term impact of UKIP is still up for debate. While UKIP have been on the rise in recent years it is true that even these results have taken many analysts by surprise.
The Abu Qatada saga demonstrates the challenging complexity of extraditing suspected criminals and terrorists through bilateral arrangements. Of course there are special features in that case and it concerns a non-EU country, but it still serves to highlight the sheer absurdity of the Conservatives' desire to pull out of the European Arrest Warrant.
I don't particularly like Mr Qatada, but if I condone either torture against him, or the use of evidence against him which was gained through torture, then I would be a complete hypocrite if I ever complained about torture against a UK citizen.
There's a perceptible preference in British public attitudes for a return of sovereignty on questions of human rights, and a significant consensus that believes the European Court of Human Rights does less to protect Britain's interests and more to protect its criminals.
If the government is serious about Qatada's terrorist credentials - and it should be - they should be pursuing a solid legal effort to put the al-Qaeda puppet master behind bars for good, in this country, under specific charges that address the totality of his support for mass death.
At the heart of the Abu Qatada case is a dispiriting lesson for those relying on the UK's once honourable track record as a haven for dissidents: the rich, famous, notorious or powerful still have a better chance of justice.
The latest performance of the long-running Westminster End Farce The Deportation of Abu Qatada came to the Commons stage yesterday afternoon. Its current impressario, Theresa May, the Home Secretary, had news to impart.
Let us examine the political thesis put forward by Lucy from Lymington who, commenting at Mail Online upon the latest anti-Cameron eruption from Mount...
If 10 O'Clock Live leads to Mitchell getting his own chat show it will have achieved something worthwhile. Until that happens, the powers-that-be have little to worry about if this represents the best satire we can produce.
What is the collective noun to describe an assembly of home secretaries, past and present? A rage? A choler? A fury? The better term might be an impotence.
The UK for the last 10 years has tried to extradite Abu Qatada, a terror suspect, to Jordan where he faces trial on charges of terrorism. The European...
When it comes down to the issue of human rights, we are entirely in the hands of the government. So when your government (and prime minister) has such a questionable reputation with regards to human rights as the UK's, those that believe in equality should really think twice before supporting the country's evolution beyond a need for the European Court of Human Rights.
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