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April 2, 2004
Your government
Is this the sort of government we want, where an unelected crony of Tony Blair's abuses his powers to discipline someone from his department for telling the truth? The Lord Chancellor, Charlie Falconer, was yesterday accused of contempt for trying to suspend Judy Weleminskey for submitting written evidence to MPs regarding deficiencies at Cafcass. Her crimes were, in Falconer's words, failure to observe confidentiality and failure to behave in a corporate manner. So from that we can assume that Charlie likes to encourage a climate of dishonesty where any failings are to be covered up by hiding evidence from MPs.The killer bit comes at the end of the report...
MPs on the standards committee agreed no further action should be taken against Lord Falconer or the former Cafcass board chairman, Anthony Hewson, and a senior official in the Department for Constitutional Affairs, David Crawley. But it said all three had been guilty of contempt of Parliament.
Well that shows how highly Parliament is regarded these days. Three individuals found guilty of contempt, but no further action to be taken. If this is leading by example, then is it no wonder that democracy is held in such little respect when unelected grandees can escape with nothing more than being told off for being naughty, naughty boys.
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Posted by Clive on April 2, 2004 12:18 PM in the category Old Stuff