Minister of Justice - Fit for Purpose ????

Well Fatty Falconer has hardly got his feet under his expensive (and huge) desk at Selborne House on Victoria Street, and he has fucked up royally....but then , did you ever give the impression that this lard arsed ex bedmate of Tony's knew what he was doing - consider the wonderful success of the Millennium Dome ...?

Sky News Sunday Live with Adam Boulton
Interview with Lord Chancellor Charles Falconer.
Aired: Sunday, 6 May, 2007 10:00

Boulton: Because it is being suggested, again quite widely, that what’s going to happen is that you are going to do John Reid’s dirty work for him, that you are going to announce that more than three thousand convicts are going to be released early from prison because of prison overcrowding and then you’ll conveniently leave the government so you’ll take that bad smell with you. Is there any truth in that?

Falconer: I have read those same stories and there is no truth in that. I am not going to comment on the details of prison policy which only becomes my responsibility on 9th May but the stories in today’s paper and previous papers saying I am plotting to release three thousand prisoners when I take over is wrong.

and further on in the Interview...

Boulton: So, let’s get this clear. You are not going to announce early releases because of prison overcrowding in the next few weeks?

Falconer: I am not going to announce early releases because of prison overcrowding.

Boulton: Any early releases?

Falconer: Any early releases, no.

Boulton: So, it’s not just the number, it is simply wrong?

Falconer: It is simply wrong.

UPDATE Sky have helpfully made available the above clip on their news site - Go here for the videoclip

Times June 19, 2007
Burglars and drug offenders ‘to be freed’

"Two weeks ago, David Hanson, the Prisons Minister, said he did not anticipate bringing forward early release measures. “We are not in the mood to have an early release scheme, and the Lord Chancellor has basically indicated that at the commencement of the Ministry of Justice.”

Jail inmates 'to be freed early'
BBC Online News Tuesday, 19 June 2007, 12:42 GMT 13:42 UK

Lord Falconer is expected to announce the early release of up to 2,000 non-violent inmates, to combat prison overcrowding in England and Wales.

The Justice Secretary's statement, due in the House of Lords, comes as the prison population breaks the 81,000 barrier for the first time.

All this is of course good news for G3 Systems of Royston, Herts, a subsidiary of the US company IAP Worldwide (who were so widely , soundly and reasonably criticised for the running of Walter Reed Hospital) who are currently supplying 2 of their "Drop in Units" of pre-fabricated prison accomodation for 60-100 inmates at a minimum cost of over £130,000 per cell.

Ordered in January they were scheduled to be fitted in June 2007.

It is useful and interesting to re-visit the following exchange in the House of Lords 26th April Hansard col 768 Fatty Falconer was at the time The Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs and Lord Chancellor - the defender (Ho Ho Ho)of the Constitution.

Earl Ferrers: My Lords, would it not have been a good idea if the Government had sought the views of Parliament before undertaking these substantial changes?

Lord Falconer of Thoroton: My Lords, these matters were told to Parliament (sic) first on 29 March (2007) . The matters of the machinery of government are a matter for the Prime Minister.

UPDATE An explanation is due of the picture at the head of this post. It is taken from the live proceedings of the House of Lords today when Fatty Falconer rekindled the desire of many viewers to boil him down for candles when he announced that some 1,200 prisoners would be released early "on licence" - not discharged from their sentence, he was anxious to point out .(Which probably means even more bureaucracy to eventually discharge them).

This makes a nice picture of 3 of Tony's top ministerial clique of non elected Ministers. Fatty of course shared Tony's life, flat and bed, but not the long, lean limbed, fragrant and very beautiful Lady Amos who is of course a VERY VERY close friend of Tony's. She is best remembered for scuttling around West Africa in February 2003 in a transparent (and fruitless) attempt to drum up support amongst the darkies for the UN resolution to invade Iraq.

It must be pointed out that this dusky damsel was the leader of the Privy Council, that convened to pass an order in Council that denied the dusky Chagossian islanders title to their home. This was famously rejected recently by the Master of the Rolls, Sir Anthony Clarke. High Court, London 23rd July 2006 who rejected the disgusting Appeal by HM Government to decision to allow Chagos Islanders to return to their homeland ...in which he said..

"The suggestion that a minister can, through the means of an Order in Council, exile a whole population from a British Overseas Territory and claim that he is doing so for the 'peace, order and good government' of the territory is, to us, repugnant."

"The decision was in reality that of the Foreign Secretary, not of Her Majesty, and is subject to challenge by way of judicial review in the ordinary way."

The third, (and like Lady Amos, overdressed party and well up there in the removing and replacing spectacles whilst attempting to make it appear that listening to Lard Arse is a fascinating way of getting through the longeurs between lunch and supper) is the snooty bitch, Baroness Scotland of Asthal - whose main claim to fame is how she mislaid the Treason Act 1795 and in a fit of legal housekeeping swept it inadvertently into the trash can - a tale you can read here (which incidentally puts My Lord Tebbitt in an excellent light, and in which Lord Onslow provides welcome light relief).

The result is if you commit Treason you will no longer be prosecuted under the now extinct 1795 Act but that of the 450 year older Treason Act of 1351 - before of course anyone had heard of the United Kingdom so probably slaying the Queen or her issue north of the border may now well escape the death penalty.

UPDATE The hapless Minister of Prisons David Hanson on Newsnight looked as though he might soon break into tears as Paxo stuffed him, ably aided by some Tory blue shirted rascal feeding like a hyena on the poor sod.

Apparently it will require the early release over the next six months of 25,000 prisoners just to maintain the current prison population... rather fucks up the idea of a coherent sentencing policy...never mind the idea of a considered policy of rehabilitation.