only the Courts have that kinda muscle

We’ve already dealt with Lord Falconer, the (ex) Lord Chancellor/hepcat. When we interviewed him he made some strong arguments to counter the Misrepresentation of the People Act (more of which in another post) but left us with a feeling he was coming from the wrong place. Which is why he’s having a bust up with Britain’s most senior judge, the Lord Chief Justice over “not a constitutional crisis”.

The sticking point was Lord Falconer refusing to set up an inquiry into how the courts service could be protected under the new Ministry of Justice.

Alan Beith, MP, chairman of the committee looking into restructuring the new ministry, said he would not let the matter rest and the Lord Chancellor would have to give way. “I have been in Parliament for 34 years and I don’t think I have ever seen such clear anger and concern on the part of the senior judiciary.”

Keith Vaz, a committee member, said that the Lord Chief Justice’s comments amounted to unprecedented criticism of ministers by the judiciary.

As suspected – the courts may be the last authority to have enough muscle and independence to deal with this government.

We shall see. Full story here.