Tim Worstall

The Rule of Law

When the decisions on who to prosecute or not are made by politicians rather than an independent legal system then we are no longer, sadly, living under the rule of law.

The attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, changed his mind about whether
there was enough evidence to bring corruption charges against the arms
company BAE after pressure from Downing Street, legal sources have told
the Guardian.

In emergency meetings before Christmas, Lord Goldsmith
initially agreed with lawyers and prosecutors that the Serious Fraud
Office could bring charges against the former head of BAE Sir Dick
Evans.

The allegations involved backdoor gifts to the then head of the Saudi air force, Prince Turki-bin-Nasser.


Having reviewed the SFO’s files, Lord Goldsmith agreed that BAE could,
in effect, be offered a plea bargain in which investigators would drop
further potentially politically embarrassing inquiries if the company
agreed to plead guilty to these relatively minor charges.

But within 48 hours the agreement was countermanded after decisions taken in Downing St, Whitehall sources said.

The correct name for this form of governance is a dictatorship. Happy days, eh?

In

4 responses

  1. Marcin Tustin Avatar
    Marcin Tustin

    Well, no. Because Parliament can legislate to prevent this kind of thing, and in any case it does not demonstrate the ability to take positive measures, rather than negative measures. It is also the case that our current settled case law is that the Attorney General has always had the unfettered discretion to stop any prosecution.

    Reply
  2. Martin Avatar
    Martin

    Er, Marcin, I don’t think that’s Tim’s point.
    Unless I’m greatly mistaken, it’s the countermanding by Downing Street that’s the issue – no?
    Am I wrong, Tim?
    Tim adds: That’s the Bunny.

    Reply
  3. dearieme Avatar
    dearieme

    Goldsmith must be a spineless wretch, I suppose?

    Reply
  4. Gdr Avatar
    Gdr

    The correct name for this form of governance is a dictatorship.
    You were doing fine up to that last sentence. Political interference in the choice of whom to prosecute is wrong and corrupting, but it’s not a defining characteristic of dictatorship, merely one of its epiphenomena.
    In many parts of the U.S., State’s Attorneys are directly elected. Although this sometimes has pernicious results, I don’t think it would be fair to say that this makes the U.S. a dictatorship. Indeed, the system in these parts of the U.S. is clearly more democratic than the system in the U.K. where the CPS is staffed by civil servants.

    Reply

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