Oh, What a Week!

Well, well, well.

What a week it has been and not over yet!

Let's start with the cat. big faux pas all round! May for using a story that wasn't accurate and Clarke for picking a fight about it. But my main concern is about our Home Secretary. Ok, her aide assured her it was true and would stand up to fact checks (it didn't). Now would most people leave it at that? I think if I was in her shoes (which wouldn't fit me BTW), I would have wanted a copy of the judgement shown to me so I could be sure of what I was going to say to the Party Conference and live on TV. The story was just too good to be true.

However the more important aspect of the story is this. The Human Rights Act. Does it need reviewed? Probably yes, in the sense that we should keep all legislation under review and make sure it is working in a fair and just way. Should we change it just because a few cases resulting out of it don't go the way we want? no.

Human Rights are something we tinker with at a huge cost. In the debate on Question Time one of the audience mentioned capital punishment. Her argument was that the few cases of innocent people being found guilty outweighs the benefit to society by removing permanently the guilty. Tell that to the family of Tim Evans. Tell that to .... I could go on, but it would just be a list of names. And in the week when Amanda Knox had her conviction overturned in Italy, it seems poor taste.

I've heard it said that individual cases make poor law. Most of the time this is true, and Human Rights is definitely one. So I'll put this very simply. Our laws exist to protect the innocent - some laws define crimes, and some laws govern what we can do about them. The Human Rights Act is there for a reason. Remember Pastor Martin Niemoller.

Then we had a new piece of Quantatitive Easing. In 2009 this was the "last resort of desperate governments", but in 2011, is a "positive move for the economy". Ok we can all bandy quotes, but the crucial question is this. In 2009 Alistair Darling started this ball rolling in conjunction with measures design to encourage growth. What has Goerge got up his sleeve for us? I don't think I hold my breath. I might just pass out.

One last question for Lib-Dems and Tories. We've heard a lot about the "mess" left by Labour. It's been a year and a half.and the mess is just getting deeper. Don't you think it is time to stop just rubbishing us? How long do you plan on using the "it wasn't me guv" card?