government

Is the government really “on the brink” of success in Strasbourg?

November 29, 2011

So the Telegraph reported the week before last, based on an interview with Ken Clarke: the Justice Secretary reveals that Britain is poised strike a deal to overhaul the controversial human rights court to stop it being used by “every individual who has lost his own particular case”. Cabinet ministers were ordered earlier this week [...]

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Brodie Clark’s tribunal claim – and Parliamentary privilege

November 10, 2011

The Guardian is reporting today that Home Office legal advisers think Brodie Clark, the former senior civil servant at the Border and Immigration Agency, will win his employment tribunal claim against the Home Office. I find this slightly strange, for a couple of reasons. First, if “Home Office lawyers” really have given such advice, I [...]

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Martin Howe QC’s advice to Steve Hilton: a few questions

September 8, 2011

Yesterday I wrote about the legal advice that, according to the Telegraph and the Standard, the PM’s Director of Strategy Steve Hilton obtained from Martin Howe QC. According to the Telegraph: The Prime Minister’s office secretly commissioned its own legal advice .. Steve Hilton, Mr Cameron’s director of policy, is understood to have hired Martin [...]

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No. 10 “secretly commissioned legal advice”

September 7, 2011

The Telegraph, reporting today on tension between 10 Downing Street and the Department for Business over implementing the Agency Workers Directive, tells us Downing Street has been told by lawyers that the Business Secretary’s department has “gold-plated” the legislation with additional rules that need not have been included, despite a pledge by the Coalition not [...]

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The Department of Health’s legal response to 38 Degrees

September 6, 2011

Guido Fawkes today drew attention to two responses by Conservative MPs to the legal opinion published by 38 Degrees about the Health and Social Care Bill – one by Stephen Phillips, and another by Guy Opperman. But the Department of Health has also published its own response – no doubt written by the lawyers working [...]

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EU law and the Health and Social Care Bill

September 1, 2011

And now for something completely different. The Health and Social Care Bill is approaching report stage in the House of Commons, and the campaign group 38 Degrees has obtained legal advice about it from Stephen Cragg and Rebecca Haynes. Legal advice on the Health and Social Care Bill The advice covers a number of things, but I’m most [...]

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News Corp withdraws its undertakings: but why?

July 11, 2011

This changes everything. As Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said in the House in his statement this afternoon, News Corporation has withdrawn its proposed “undertakings in lieu” in relation to BSkyB. These were its undertakings, for instance “spinning off” Sky News to make it independent, and protect it from News Corp dominance. Since it was that [...]

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Can the NewsCorp-BSkyB deal be stopped?

July 6, 2011

A lot of people must be wondering this, given recent allegations and revelations about phone hacking by the News of the World. So can the Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt now block the planned merger of News Corporation and BSkyB? He has already said he is minded to allow it, subject to certain undertakings relating in [...]

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Government note on the legal basis for deployment in Libya

March 21, 2011

The government has today published a note (hat tip to Paul Waugh) setting out a summary of the legal basis of the government’s deployment in Libya. Actually it does no more than explain that UN Resolution 1973 authorises member states to take all necessary measures to enforce a no-fly zone and to protect civilians in [...]

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Have lawyers really “cleared” the government to defy Strasbourg over prisoners’ votes?

February 18, 2011

Today the Times is running a (£) story headlined: Cameron is cleared to defy Europe on human rights The story is based on an eight-page memo prepared for Nick Clegg that Sam Coates has published on Twitter: [blackbirdpie url="[blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/SamCoatesTimes/status/38568272400097280"] It’s not clear who the advice is from or to (although its file name beginning [...]

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