Keir Starmer did not believe a word that he was saying to the thing Mumsnet, the deference to which has always bewildered me. But we have to take our opportunities where we find them.
As long ago as 1985, 37 years ago, the Thatcher Government secured a judicial fiat that, without bothering to ask Parliament, abolished the age of consent altogether in England and Wales.
Gillick competence ought instead to be called Thatcher competence, and the Major Government wrote Thatcher competence into the Age of Legal Capacity (Scotland) Act 1991.
But it is applied in Northern Ireland on no authority that is apparent to anyone. And even in England and Wales, it has never been subject to a parliamentary vote. It would be if I were in Parliament. See you there.
Mumsnet reads like it can't be real, we have decided that this is where election are won and lost, I despair.
ReplyDeleteI for one have not decided that.
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