Blair to launch overhaul of criminal justice
Blair seems incapable of leaving things alone.
After John Reid's intervention in the case of a paedohpile who may be realeased after five years, Blair is in a tizzy that Cameron might outflank him in the rush to ensure that even more people are incarcerated, so he's announced yet another plan to rewrite the Criminal Justice Bill.Mr Cameron and Mr Blair betray a disregard for the facts about incarceration. There are 77,642 prisoners in England and Wales. This is up by more than a half in the past 13 years, with a steeper rise in the count of prisoners serving long terms. It represents one of the world's highest imprisonment rates, with more people serving life sentences here than in the rest of western Europe combined. If more and longer sentences were the route to security on our streets, Britons should be feeling safer. Yet, in spite of reduced crime, the evidence shows that over the past decade fear of crime, which for most people is more of a problem than crime itself, has remained stubbornly high.
I remain highly sceptical of politicians involving themselves and overtly criticising the judiciary and there's been a strong tendency to do this from this Labour administration. It was started by Blunkett who used to complain that judges were unelected and therefore should always give way to politicians.
In this Blunkett rather missed the point. It is the very fact that judges are not elected which gives them their independence. And constant intereference from politicians undermines the seperation between the executive and the judiciary.
However, we can bet that it is with this mindset that Blair will approach his reworking of the Criminal Justice Bill.
He is once again approaching policy driven by headlines, as if pleasing the readers of the right wing Daily Mail is really what he was elected to do.
Nor am I alone in finding his constant fiddling with law and order tiresome.
The former chief inspector of prisons, Lord Ramsbotham, said a period of silence on Mr Blair's part was required when it came to crime and prisons: "I just wish he'd shut up, frankly. One of the problems that there has been recently is announcement after announcement from the prime minister that he's going to do this and that and the other, and more people are going to come in for longer," he told the BBC.
"Unfortunately, all that's doing is crowding the system even more than it is. That doesn't just apply to the Prison Service; it also applies to the probation service," he said, adding it was no use blaming an overwhelmed and under-resourced probation service for not doing what it should.
We should beware. What Blair most objects to is the Human Rights legislation that was introduced by his own government and, specifically, the rights of suspects not to be sent to any country where they may be subjected to torture.
These rights are actually entrenched in European law, it is scandalous that a supposed Labour Prime Minister is about to attack them.
When Blair and Cameron talk on the subject of Human Rights laws, it would be impossible to get a razor blade between them, as both are adopting such right wing positions.I hope in my lifetime to witness a Labour government led by a Labour Prime Minister.
Because we don't have that now.
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