John Redwood: This is a Government of the lawyers, by the lawyers, for the lawyers. Chagos proves it
Sir John Redwood is a former MP for Wokingham and a former Secretary of State for Wales, he now sits in the House of Lords.
The Attorney General intervenes widely across government and has considerable influence through being a trusted advisor of the Prime Minister.
Sir Keir Starmer himself as a former government lawyer approaches many problems by asking what the law, Treaties and internal law requires him to do. The problem is the lawyers helping him often seem to give bad advice, and regularly give advice which is unpopular with the public. Voters are fed up with international lawyers telling us what we must do often favouring the foreigner at the expense of the UK national interest.
We can see bad law leading the Prime Minister astray over the Chagos islands.
First the government asserted that the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice that we should give the islands to Mauritius would soon result in the UK losing a binding case in the Court. They would then order us to give the islands away on worse terms . We were told to settle before such an embarrassment. So why hadn’t these lawyers read our Treaty joining the International Court system? This clearly states that the Court cannot make a binding judgement against us on Commonwealth or defence matters. Diego Garcia and Mauritius are in both reserved categories. Many months have passed since we were told the ICJ would tell us what to do, but so far they have not tried such a move.
Worried no doubt by being told this, Ministers shifted to the UN Law of the Sea. Here they had not read far enough into the Treaty when we joined. Clause 298 gives us a clear opt out for defence matters, which our base at Diego Garcia most clearly is. The UK has always reserved the right to exempt defence matters from the Treaty jurisdiction.
These lawyers are usually particularly hot at defending the rights of former colonists of the previous colonising powers like the UK. So why did they announce the giveaway of the Chagos islands without bothering to consult the Chagos islanders. They should have been particularly careful as it was a previous Labour government that evicted the Chagossians from their homeland against their will. When the government did get round to talking to the islanders, now UK citizens, they discovered they do not want their islands given away to Mauritius. The Chagossians want the islands to stay British. So why didn’t this matter?
Worse still, when a few of the islanders decided as UK citizens to return to this British territory the UK government ordered them off their islands. More bad law, as they rapidly lost in Court with a finding they could not order them out. Many of us were particularly angry about this development. Here was a government which said it could not …
Sir John Redwood is a former MP for Wokingham and a former Secretary of State for Wales, he now sits in the House of Lords.
The Attorney General intervenes widely across government and has considerable influence through being a trusted advisor of the Prime Minister.
Sir Keir Starmer himself as a former government lawyer approaches many problems by asking what the law, Treaties and internal law requires him to do. The problem is the lawyers helping him often seem to give bad advice, and regularly give advice which is unpopular with the public. Voters are fed up with international lawyers telling us what we must do often favouring the foreigner at the expense of the UK national interest.
We can see bad law leading the Prime Minister astray over the Chagos islands.
First the government asserted that the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice that we should give the islands to Mauritius would soon result in the UK losing a binding case in the Court. They would then order us to give the islands away on worse terms . We were told to settle before such an embarrassment. So why hadn’t these lawyers read our Treaty joining the International Court system? This clearly states that the Court cannot make a binding judgement against us on Commonwealth or defence matters. Diego Garcia and Mauritius are in both reserved categories. Many months have passed since we were told the ICJ would tell us what to do, but so far they have not tried such a move.
Worried no doubt by being told this, Ministers shifted to the UN Law of the Sea. Here they had not read far enough into the Treaty when we joined. Clause 298 gives us a clear opt out for defence matters, which our base at Diego Garcia most clearly is. The UK has always reserved the right to exempt defence matters from the Treaty jurisdiction.
These lawyers are usually particularly hot at defending the rights of former colonists of the previous colonising powers like the UK. So why did they announce the giveaway of the Chagos islands without bothering to consult the Chagos islanders. They should have been particularly careful as it was a previous Labour government that evicted the Chagossians from their homeland against their will. When the government did get round to talking to the islanders, now UK citizens, they discovered they do not want their islands given away to Mauritius. The Chagossians want the islands to stay British. So why didn’t this matter?
Worse still, when a few of the islanders decided as UK citizens to return to this British territory the UK government ordered them off their islands. More bad law, as they rapidly lost in Court with a finding they could not order them out. Many of us were particularly angry about this development. Here was a government which said it could not …
John Redwood: This is a Government of the lawyers, by the lawyers, for the lawyers. Chagos proves it
Sir John Redwood is a former MP for Wokingham and a former Secretary of State for Wales, he now sits in the House of Lords.
The Attorney General intervenes widely across government and has considerable influence through being a trusted advisor of the Prime Minister.
Sir Keir Starmer himself as a former government lawyer approaches many problems by asking what the law, Treaties and internal law requires him to do. The problem is the lawyers helping him often seem to give bad advice, and regularly give advice which is unpopular with the public. Voters are fed up with international lawyers telling us what we must do often favouring the foreigner at the expense of the UK national interest.
We can see bad law leading the Prime Minister astray over the Chagos islands.
First the government asserted that the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice that we should give the islands to Mauritius would soon result in the UK losing a binding case in the Court. They would then order us to give the islands away on worse terms . We were told to settle before such an embarrassment. So why hadn’t these lawyers read our Treaty joining the International Court system? This clearly states that the Court cannot make a binding judgement against us on Commonwealth or defence matters. Diego Garcia and Mauritius are in both reserved categories. Many months have passed since we were told the ICJ would tell us what to do, but so far they have not tried such a move.
Worried no doubt by being told this, Ministers shifted to the UN Law of the Sea. Here they had not read far enough into the Treaty when we joined. Clause 298 gives us a clear opt out for defence matters, which our base at Diego Garcia most clearly is. The UK has always reserved the right to exempt defence matters from the Treaty jurisdiction.
These lawyers are usually particularly hot at defending the rights of former colonists of the previous colonising powers like the UK. So why did they announce the giveaway of the Chagos islands without bothering to consult the Chagos islanders. They should have been particularly careful as it was a previous Labour government that evicted the Chagossians from their homeland against their will. When the government did get round to talking to the islanders, now UK citizens, they discovered they do not want their islands given away to Mauritius. The Chagossians want the islands to stay British. So why didn’t this matter?
Worse still, when a few of the islanders decided as UK citizens to return to this British territory the UK government ordered them off their islands. More bad law, as they rapidly lost in Court with a finding they could not order them out. Many of us were particularly angry about this development. Here was a government which said it could not …
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