Prisoners Rights

Judicial Review, and access to Courts, is the only way that prisoners can ensure that there is an independent check that what is happening to them is lawful.

There has been a lot of chat about getting rid of the Human Rights Act. In reality, because of Treaty obligations, there would have to be some form of "Rights" legislation for the UK. This is only right. The UK is not some authoritarian, despotic State that operates on the margins of civilised behaviour. It is right that dangerous people are locked up in prison-it is right that their detention is reviewed.

This is just the start of it

The UK Government needs to act more boldly than it has done. There is no point waiting-the cuts they know ought to be bmade need to be made right now.

Sweden went through a similar problem, as the UK now faces, in the 1990's. In 5 years Sweden had recovered. There was an element of luck ie the devaluation of the Krona, and the fact that the rest of the world was not in recession. However the model of recovery still holds good-cut spending, devalue currency, boost exports. The real engine to recovery is the engine of exports.

If the UK cannot compete with the rest of the world as far as trade is concerned then we will lose out. We cannot rely on London as the centre of world banking or the fact that banking generates about 25% of all tax receipts. We need to do more and we need to do it now. The TUC call to wait and see and to protect jobs and frontline services is natural, to be expected-and wrong.

After the election

It had the feel of a couple meeting for the first time, having heard rumours about each other, and then, finally, getting to talk. And they talked all night and realised they were in love-so got married without delay. After the wedding speech in the lovely rose garden the jilted lover, like the worst form of stalker, started hurling abuse in public at the young couple alleging all sorts of underhand nonsense and trickery.

"Grow up!!", the onlookers shouted. "Give them a chance".

Will it work? Who knows. Certainly there will have to be cuts in public spending but there is a huge amount of waste and inefficiency in every Government Department, Agency, local Government etc etc that must be addressed first. there is the perception of mangaementitis. Too many managers and not enough front line staff.

A proper value for money assessment must be made.

I understand HIPs are to go but Energy Performance Certificates remain. What sort of Government is it that creates an industry that adds nothing to the principle process that encourages people to qualify and invest in the industry, against all advice, only for the next Government to wipe out that industry? New Labour-Yvette Cooper was the Minister (wife of Ed Balls).

Let's hope the New Politics means Ministers will listen and create solutions based upon what the experts say-ie what those who work in the system say, as opposed to forcing on us new policies and systems and legislation based upon dogma alone.

Election

Not long now.

I live in Newcastle and work, mostly, in Sunderland. The North East is a Labour stronghold. The idea that someone here could vote anything other than Labour especially when that is how the family has voted for decades, for some people, is unthinkable.

There are others, of a working-class background, who never favoured the unions or the power of Labour and voted Conservative.

Newcastle is a changed city. There are many people living here from outside the area. The Lib Dems have control of Newcastle City Council.

This election is all about those people who will vote Labour and those who will vote for another party (in the hope that everyone else will too) to keep Labour out.

Some people won’t vote at all.

Personally I see this election as the first chance in decades to show the established parties that we, the voters, are fed up being lied to and being taken for granted. Sure there are hard times ahead. Sure there will have to be cuts. Who is most likely to get us through the mess ahead as quickly as possible, most effectively and with the least pain possible?

I hope that there is a change to our election system so that PR is introduced for Westminster elections. The idea that PR causes chaos is based upon myth and legend. In Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and Irish Republic, along with every other country in Europe, PR delivers strong Government and politics that involves the greater number of people. There will be a representative at Parliament that I might have voted for.

If there had been a different Government /Parliament structure at Westminster would we have gone to War? Germany’s economy and France’s economy is strong (stronger than UK) yet PR is how elected representatives are appointed. Italy’s system is a complex system of Lists (NOT PR).

I have a personal gripe with Labour. The Ministry of Justice and the Legal Services Commission have lied about legal aid, have misled about legal aid reform and have disadvantaged poor people by offering to them a second or even third rate system on the basis that the system that they will fund is good enough for them. The concept of legal aid grew out of the belief that poor people should have access to the same legal expertise as those who can afford it. The current system of reform has created a legal advice giving system that is of lower quality for poor people.