Dear Reader,
I write to you tonight from the good ship Liberty (pictured above) … I managed to swim ashore… and after a reviving glass of Rioja, I was able to settle down to write to you.
Well… it is all go on the civil liberties front. Our government continues to listen but not to hear and yesterday saw the first ever Convention on Modern Liberty. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend but I put the time to good use by exercising one of our most cherished liberties.. the freedom to drink and congregate with others.
Podcast 110: A report from the Convention on Modern Liberty
I did, however, have a friend who was fortunate in getting a ticket Oedipus Lex – a fellow blogger who is also on Twitter. I have just done a short podcast with Oedipus Lex: A report from the Convention on Modern Liberty – Listen to the Podcast
The rule of law is alive and well?
The government continues to ride ruffshod over the rule of law with the latest nonsense cooked up by Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Harriet Harman QC, MP. Sky News reports: “”Sir Fred should not be counting on being £650,000 a year better off as a result of this because it is not going to happen,” she said. “The Prime Minister has said it is not acceptable and therefore it will not be accepted.”
The half baked plan, designed no doubt to appeal to Middle Britain, is to strip Sir Fred The Shred Goodwin, former CEO of RBS of his £650,000 annual pension. Hapless Harriet is reported as stating “It might be enforceable in a court of law this contract, but it’s not enforceable in the court of public opinion and that’s where the Government steps in.”
So.. here we have a trained lawyer, a QC no less, saying that the contract may well turn out to be enforceable in a court of law (But she had government lawyers ‘crawling all over it” to find weaknesses or possible cause for termination?) saying that because some unspecified people do not find this acceptable she is going to change the law. The question is (a) Is she going to change the Law of Contract to render enforceable contracts unenforceable ex post facto if the public don’t like them or (b) is she going to come up with yet more fudge and leave such contracts liable to being declared ‘illegal at common law’ if the public interest is not served by their being enforced and held to be valid?” God knows? There is some suggestion of the *Special Act of Parliament* being wheeled out. If the government proceeds with this *Special Act*… will they stop there? Why not have a general power to strike down laws, contracts, and behaviour, ‘unacceptable to the court of public opinion’ – but subject, naturally, to the *safeguard* that it must be certified by a *responsible government minister* as unenforceable in the court of public opinion.
I give up… this is preposterous nonsense. Whatever one may feel about Sir Fred Goodwin and his bounty, the law should not be changed willy nilly because of an amorphous, intangible feeling that the Court of People who bray, have six fingers and carry flaming torches may find it “Unacceptable”.
Fortunately there are many sensible people in this country – and I believe some of these sensible people are also in parliament – so perhaps this half baked pavlova of legalo-political fuckery will not be followed up.
Talking of sensible people – I have been talking to quite a few of them in my series of podcasts on Civil liberties. You may care to listen to them if you haven’t already done so:
Carl Gardner – Lawcast 109: The Jack Straw veto on FOI disclosure of Cabinet Minutes relating to the decision to go to war with Iraq
Lawcast 108 – Michael Burdett: Unbalancing the Scales of Justice
Lawcast 106: Roger Smith, Director of Justice: On civil liberties and human rights.
Lawcast 104: With Ian Parker-Joseph, Leader of The UK Libertarian Party
Lawcast 103: Carl Gardner on the Lords judgment in Qatada
Lawcast 101: Charon reports on the Geert Wilders affair – Freedom of Speech
Coming up this week: Podcasts with James Welch, Head of Legal for LIBERTY and Steve Hynes, Director of The Legal Action Group on access to justice and civil legal aid (or the lack of it).
That’s all for now… I am off to continue exercising my cherished freedom to drink and enjoy my life before the government cooks up another pavlova of nonsense.
best as always
Charon.
Charon QC 
Does Harriet Harman think we are all imbeciles? Unbelievable.
john – yes, clearly.
i thought you’d be on this, charon. as soon as i heard harman utter those unfortunate words about the court of public opinion it had ‘charon post’ written all over it. quite what they can do is another matter.
what they should have done is yet another.
and how they could have done anything even of the most reasonable and sensible nature without having the other two piles of crap all over them with intellectual points of the level of ‘nurr nurr nee nurr nurr’ is the hardest of the three.
it was however balm to my troubled soul watching george osborne talking about bolting the stable door after the horse (*worried look crosses face as he realises he has fucked up a perfectly serviceable cliche*) has errr in fact err bolted. *limp smile*. does it help that there is one person in the country plainly less appropriate than darling to be chancellor? yes! until i realise that in a matter of months that person is going to be taking over. gaarrrgh!
so charon – my poser for you, for john and for all other sensible thinkers out there is ‘what DO you do about that vile thief (as are they all whether their banks make a profit or not) and his pension?’
just to get the ball rolling i would hold him down and shit in his mouth. and if that’s still illegal, i will change the law.
Charon,
I am surprised that the governmnt are not going after the board of RBOS for approviing Fred’s pension deal. If they really did give hiom more than his contractual entitlement, then surely they are a much better target then Fred.
As for the CML, I hope it went well.It would be much better, in my opinion, if they had more technical experts and fewer journalists and lawyers.
By the way, I liked Harriet H’s argument about the ‘court of public opinion’-she is a clever girl, that one.
James C
Charon,
Thanks for having me. I am still shamed that I forgot Shami Charabarti’s name and then sounded dismissive of her! It’s funny how being interviewed makes me forget how to speak!
OL
HMG proposes retrospective laws punishing and impoverishing (well maybe not actually impoverishing) random citizens?
not good
also not good as it seems to be a smoke screen to hide the £350bn (best case?) that will be poured down the drain on the shiney new bank liability insurance.
also not good as perhaps shows a government populated by the hard of thinking. If fred loses his pension for making such a moronic monumental mess then surely the current bloated incumbents should losing theirs too?
[…] 1st March: Postcard from the good ship “Liberty” Charon QC reviews the extraordinary statements made by Harriet Harman QC and does a Charonafter a glass pic. More… […]
[…] Geeklawyers twitter chum @oedipus_rex was lucky enough to be present ad it was nice to hear that it was a broad political mix: from the Conservative parties David Davis to the Green party. Young OE, being a tad right wing, was of the view that only poofy sandal wearing lefties were interested in this topic. He discusses the conferece with Charon here. […]
[…] 1st March: Postcard from the good ship “Liberty” Charon QC reviews the extraordinary statements made by Harriet Harman QC and does a Charonafter a glass pic. More… […]
[…] Geeklawyers twitter chum @oedipus_rex was lucky enough to be present ad it was nice to hear that it was a broad political mix: from the Conservative parties David Davis to the Green party. Young OE, being a tad right wing, was of the view that only poofy sandal wearing lefties were interested in this topic. He discusses the conference with Charon here. […]