Comments on: Clare Short

By: viz

viz — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 13:02:28 +0000

She and all those who resigned before her - did they send any message to Blair? No! Mugabee shouldn’t be blamed then.

By: Mike Gunnell

Mike Gunnell — Fri, 05 Mar 2004 10:09:36 +0000

I notice with interest that one of the considerations as to whether to prosecute Clare Short or not is to see if it is in the publc interest to do so. Should that not read in the interest of the Prime Minister.

By: Chris Lightfoot

Chris Lightfoot — Mon, 01 Mar 2004 15:33:53 +0000

Ah, OK. That makes sense.

By: Owen Blacker

Owen Blacker — Mon, 01 Mar 2004 14:10:21 +0000

My understanding was that it was the AG deciding whether a prosecution would be "in the public interest", given that prosecutions under the OSA are likely to involve evidence that may be damaging to the interests of the UK (or, at the very least, expose operational information about our Intelligence Services).

From that, I’d guess it’s the AG acting in a political rôle, not just a legal one. Either way, though, it’s somewhat implausible that the PM’s feelings on the matter wouldn’t be taken into account in such a decision, surely? :o)

By: Chris Lightfoot

Chris Lightfoot — Mon, 01 Mar 2004 09:05:25 +0000

Prosecutions under the Act require the consent of the Attorney General:
http://www.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts1989/Ukpga_19890006_en_2.htm#mdiv9
but I’m not sure whether this means the AG acting in their political or legal capacity. If the former, then Blair certainly has a part in the decision, which makes sense.

By: Ben Hammersley

Ben Hammersley — Mon, 01 Mar 2004 06:51:04 +0000

It’s not a matter for the Prime Minister to decide, if Clare Short is going to be prosecuted: there is a separation of the government and the judiciary. It’s up to the Crown Prosecution Service to decide, surely?

Put it another way: if the CPS want to prosecute under the Official Secrets Act, and No.10 stopped them from doing so for political reasons it would be arguably worse than the breach itself.

By: Francis Irving

Francis Irving — Mon, 01 Mar 2004 03:19:28 +0000

Interesting bit in this Guardian story, showing that Labour would do badly by punishing her.

"The prime minister is understood to want to see his former cabinet minister punished, but is wary of turning her into a martyr."

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/whitehall/story/0,9061,1159275,00.html

By: Tom Loosemore

Tom Loosemore — Sun, 29 Feb 2004 20:35:00 +0000

There’s no way the Labour party will make a martyr of her by doing something so obvious as kicking her out of the party.

Rather I think they’ll be more subtle over time.

see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3494090.stm