Minijust

It’s the first day of the existence of the new Ministry of Justice. I’ve nothing against this, really; it seems to me reasonable enough to organise government in this way. But there are a couple of grumpy things I want to say, nonetheless.

First, that I’ve never http://www.raybani.com/ understood why some lawyers have argued that simply having a body called a “Ministry of Justice” would in itself represent or embody some enormous liberal revolution in favour of the citizen, and have more or less campaigned for one to be set up. It doesn’t make a blind bit of difference to anything. I think the attraction of the name for some lawyers is simply the fact that a Ministry of Justice sounds a bit Charter 88-ish, and a bit French.

Second, it seems to me ridiculous to think this change makes any difference at all to the problems which have faced the Home Office over the last couple of years. To suggest that this little bit of deckchair-arranging helps in any way at all is the kind of thinking indulged in by cheap oakley incompetent, weak ministers who cannot face the fact that real achievement needs work, commitment, resources and leadership. What a jolly good thing John Reid has announced he’s leaving the cabinet.

Finally, I’m very pleasantly surprised to know it’s still possible in 2007 for there to be a new ministry “of” something. It had seemed that this approach had become rude, or inappropriate, and that all newly-named ministries and departments had to be not of, but “for” something instead.