Post by nickd on Oct 7, 2011 8:27:49 GMT 1
The Ministry of Justice has taken a right old hammering over recent weeks. Despite the Prime Ministers attempts to hide the cracks by making light of it all in his conference speech, it's becoming all too clear that Ken Clarke and Theresa May are not seeing eye to eye on Human Rights. Will these divisions force an early reshuffle?
Will a reshuffle put Ken Clarke out to grass?
It's vitally to the Tories that they are seen to be singing from the same song sheet before going head to head with their coalition partners the Liberal Democrats over the Human Rights issue.
Other problems exist within the Ministry; not least over Clarke's very wealthy junior Jonathon Djanogly who is seen by many to be an embarrassment within the party as well as problems over Crispin Blunt; - another justice minister in trouble.
Is the Ministry of Justice falling apart?
Guardian speculates that Clarke and Djanogly may be reshuffled :
"Kenneth Clarke prepares for 'enforced retirement' following cat spat with MayJustice secretary unlikely to survive next reshuffle as No 10 backs home secretary in fall out over Human Rights Act
Nicholas Watt and Alan Travis The Guardian, Friday 7 October 2011
Kenneth Clarke is bracing himself for an enforced retirement from the cabinet after Downing Street reacted furiously to his accusation that Theresa May gave a "laughable, childlike" example in criticising the Human Rights Act at this week's Tory party conference.
David Cameron is assessing whether to clear out the bulk of Clarke's Ministry of Justice in a long-awaited reshuffle, after what No 10 regards as a series of blunders. The reshuffle was due in the spring, but there was speculation that the shakeup, which will see the departure of the justice ministers Crispin Blunt and Jonathan Djanogly over separate mistakes, could come as early as next month.
Clarke annoyed Cameron for the second time in a week when he appeared to raise the stakes in his dispute with No 10 and the home secretary over the Human Rights Act. In an interview with the Nottingham Post, the local newspaper in his Rushcliffe constituency, he launched a fresh attack on May over her claim that a man had been able to avoid deportation because he owned a cat.
Clarke, who had mocked May at the Tory conference on Tuesday, said: "I sat and listened to Theresa's speech, and I'll have to be very polite to Theresa when I meet her – but in my opinion she should really address her researchers and advisers very severely for assuring her that a complete nonsense example in her speech was true.
"I'm not going to stand there and say in my private opinion this is a terrible thing and we ought to get rid of the Human Rights Act. It's not only the judges that all get furious when the home secretary makes a parody of a court judgment – our commission, who are helping us form our view on this, are not going to be entertained by laughable, child-like examples being given."
No 10, which supported May's speech and feared the justice secretary was opening a second front, asked Clarke to explain himself. Clarke told them he had given the interview in Manchester, a few hours before Cameron's speech to the conference. The timing of the interview lowered tensions in No 10 because it showed that Clarke had stood by an agreement to pull his punches after Cameron tried to draw a line under the affair by joking in his conference speech that he had asked the justice secretary to read Crime and Punishment twice.
In a statement released at lunchtime, Clarke said: "This is old news from an interview I gave during the conference. I consider this issue closed.
"The prime minister has made the position clear, and I fully support it. There is a problem with deporting foreign prisoners, which I have always agreed with Theresa needs to be addressed. The government's commission on a bill of rights is under way. I do rather regret the colourful language I used at one point in my interview."
No 10 thought the statement would close down the affair. But officials had failed to spot that Clarke and May were due to attend a ministerial meeting on trade. When they were spotted entering No 10, rumours appeared on Twitter that they had been summoned to No 10 for a dressing down. The two ministers made a point of talking in a friendly way as they left No 10 together.
Downing Street regards Clarke's public mocking of May as unacceptable behaviour towards a cabinet colleague. There is particular anger as it was the only divisive moment during the Tory conference.
But Clarke believes he is right on the substance and thinks that May was not speaking for the coalition when she said she would like to see the abolition of the Human Rights Act. Clarke and Nick Clegg are due to receive a copy of a report into the future of the act from a commission after the Liberal Democrats rejected the outright rejection of the act.
The view of the justice secretary was endorsed by Lynne Featherstone, the Lib Dem Home Office minister, who rebuked her boss. In her column in the Hampstead & Highgate Express, she wrote: "There is scope for common ground on dealing with those excesses [in interpreting the act], but outside of tha[t] – the Home Sec's 'personal' desire to see the Human Rights Act go – is just not going to happen under this government."
Friends of Clarke, 71, accept that he may struggle to remain in the cabinet at the next reshuffle. The prime minister will be able to argue that graceful retirement is the right option for the MP who entered parliament when Cameron was three. The Ministry of Justice could see the departure of three of its ministers. Blunt was involved in a row last summer over parties for prisoners. Djanogly has annoyed No 10 over the handling of his business affairs..............................."
More on Djanogly
Justice minister Jonathan Djanogly did not declare children's legal shares
Jonathan Djanogly, the justice minister, is facing calls for an investigation after admitting that he had not declared that his children owned shares in an "ambulance–chasing" legal claims firm.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/8805760/Justice-minister-Jonathan-Djanogly-did-not-declare-childrens-legal-shares.html
And Crispin Blunt; - who's brother Oliver Blunt earned over
£5 million in legal aid fees. He's in the firing line too..
"Justice minister Crispin Blunt in firing line after row over prison parties"
"Rules relaxation is reversed as No 10 censures minister amid anger over comments aimed at David Cameron"
www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/jul/23/prison-parties-cameron-censure-minister
Of one thing you can be certain, there's more than a few claws out in the Ministry of Justice; and just like our feline friends - any one of these ministers only has so many lives. Deeper divisions appear to be emerging; - and there's probably many more to emerge.
*Guardian article posted by Jman on Ilegal forum earlier today.
www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/....rced-retirement
Read more: ilegal.org.uk/index.cgi?
board=reformnews&action=display&thread=3803#ixzz1a4sRL27U