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May 21st, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda - Daily Mail did a ‘service’ by raising concerns of civil liberties groups
- Judges rather than ministers will now have final say over whether case is heard in secret
By
Kirsty Walker
19:54 EST, 20 May 2012
|
19:54 EST, 20 May 2012
‘Liberal’: Ken Clarke admitted the Daily Mail was right to criticise controversial plans to extend secret court hearings
Justice Secretary Ken Clarke yesterday admitted the Daily Mail was right to criticise the Government over controversial plans to extend secret court hearings.
Mr Clarke said the paper had done a ‘service’ by raising concerns from civil liberties groups, MPs and lawyers with its No to Secret Courts campaign.
He admitted that ‘rather loose’ wording in the Justice and Security Green Paper would have led to more cases being heard behind closed doors.
Mr Clarke also signalled a climbdown over the reforms by insisting he would live up to his ‘well-known liberal views’ when the proposals are published on Thursday.
He will insist that judges – not ministers – will have the final say over whether evidence is heard in secret or not.
Inquests are also expected to be excluded from the legislation. The blueprint is now likely to limit the use of closed courts to cases involving national security.
However, civil liberties groups say the proposals still mark a retreat from the basic principle that justice has to be seen to be done.
Admitting that criticism of the initial proposals was justified, Mr Clarke told Sky News: ‘I think the Daily Mail did a bit of a service actually because if you look at the Green Paper it could be allowing ministers and officials to start putting a lot of things in secret.
‘It’s all about spies, it’s all about national security and the judge will in the end have the decision as to whether he agrees that national security is at risk.’
The Government has already said there would be a ‘limited use of closed proceedings, to hear a greater range of evidence in national security cases’.
That narrowed the terms of draft legislation, which suggested ministers would be able to order closed hearings in any civil case they felt threatened the ‘public interest’.
Under the plans, defendants or claimants will not be allowed to be present, know or challenge the case against them and must be represented by a security-cleared advocate rather than their own lawyer.
Parliament’s joint committee on human rights produced a report damning the plans as ‘inherently unfair and dangerous’.
No to secret courts: Some of the headlines from the Mail’s campaign over the past few months
Defending the measures, Mr Clarke said: ‘No evidence that is given in open court at the moment is going to be given in secret under our proposals, what we’re talking about is evidence which might be given by spies about their sources, their technologies, what they know, none of which is ever given in open court in any country in the world.’
He admitted: ‘We perhaps raised it rather loosely so I hope on Thursday to persuade people that we are as committed to the principles of freedom we are trying to protect as we ever were in opposition. I agree that some of our critics were quite rightly rather sensitive about that.’
But Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said Mr Clarke’s comments had not gone far enough.
She said: ‘It is no concession to allow a judge to trigger the closed process as ministers’ decisions would be subject to judicial review.
‘This legislation will make the finest judiciary in the world complicit in the cover-ups of officialdom. It will be like a football match with a referee from your own squad played with the other team permanently off the pitch.’
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But weren’t these secret courts being pushed by Clarke in the first place? The marbles are so loose, his retirement should be immediate and compulsory.
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Clarke praises the press – since when does a paper have more influence than our paid servants for policy making,isn’t there a government in Westminster? Pah!
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I think they are all wronge in their heads – a bit like Cable saying he might not vote for student fess!
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