Sunday 26 June 2016

Keeper of the Conscience

Off toddles Charlie Falconer.

He did good work on Hillsborough. But he has never been elected to anything, having been made a Minister thanks to ennoblement at the hands of his erstwhile flatmate, Tony Blair.

Michael Gove is the second non-lawyer in succession to be Lord Chancellor. Let him by Shadowed by one of the surviving MPs who nominated Jeremy Corbyn and who have not recanted.

If you propose to mock the idea of, say, Dennis Skinner or Ronnie Campbell in that role, then ask yourself how he is any less qualified than Chris Grayling or Michael Gove.

Indeed, without their upper-middle-class arrogance, such a figure (and there are several other possibilities) would be open to the voice of professional expertise.

At the very least, this appointment does need to go to someone who shares Corbyn's own record of opposition to the erosion of civil liberties.

3 comments:

  1. With the Labour party falling apart at the seams with 11 Shadow Cabinet resignations, this new article by Hitchens in First Things points out that the EU referendum showed the Scots have always preferred Continental rule to British rule.

    Hitchens observes:""First of all, this is mainly an English revolt against Continental rule.

    Wales joined in, but principally for old-fashioned class reasons—a large part of the exit vote was made up of blue-collar types, sick of being forgotten, neglected, and taken for granted, and sick of uncontrolled mass immigration.

    Scotland, whose religion, laws, customs, and traditions have always been more European than English, and which spent most of the Middle Ages allying with France against the old English enemy, did not join in. It voted decisively to stay under E.U. rule."

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    Replies
    1. He is hamming it up with that one. Scotland was one of the most anti-Market parts of the country the last time round. I can see what he means, but he is writing for a very particular type of audience in First Things.

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    2. Aren't Michael Gove and Liam Fox Scottish?

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