Westminster Watch

To legislate or not to legislate?   

As the year draws to a close, Mark Hatcher reviews events in Parliament 

Mark Hatcher examines the recent by-elections and the resulting fall-out for the political parties.  

The next general election is barely 200 days away but in the past few weeks, the village of Westminster has been in the grip of by-election fever. 

On the eve of the Scottish referendum, Mark Hatcher reflects on politics either side of the border and conference season for all parties.  

When Tip O’Neill, the former Speaker of the US House of Representatives, died President Bill Clinton remarked that “he loved politics and government because he saw [they] could make a difference in people’s lives and he loved people most of all.” 

Mark Hatcher reviews the recent government reshuffle and its implications for the Bar.  

The government reshuffle which took place in mid-July – almost 52 years to the day after Harold Macmillan’s ”night of the long knives”, when seven Cabinet members (a third of the total, including the Lord Chancellor, Lord Kilmuir) were sacked – was much more wide-ranging than expected. 

In his first column for Counsel, Mark Hatcher examines the newly opened Parliamentary session and the business ahead.  

As the beginning of the holiday season approaches, MPs face another few weeks at Westminster before the House of Commons rises for the summer recess on 22 July. The Parliamentary session, which opened with The Queen’s Speech on 4 June, will have been running for just seven weeks before the Commons pack up for the summer. Allowing for a two-week interval of business before the party conferences begin in September, MPs can look forward to a 10-week break. 

In his last column, Toby Craig reports on an action-packed month in Westminster and the deal with the criminal Bar.  

If a week is a long time in politics, then four years in Westminster can seem an eternity. Having penned WW for almost that long, this column shall be my 46th and my last. More on that later; but there have been few months as action-packed as this one, so it is as good as any on which to exit. A budget, TV debates, a cabinet resignation and finally, a breakthrough on legal aid and that’s before we get to the House of Lords’ 155-page report on soft power. Never let it be said WW scrimps on the detail. 

Toby Craig contemplates the familiar story behind the recent further reductions to the criminal legal budget.  

And so, on 27 February, after months of consultation, discussion and protest, the Government announced its final intention further to reduce criminal legal aid. This comes on top of the swingeing cuts to civil legal aid, implemented through LASPO last year. 

Rain, rain, go away.... Toby Craig reviews a wet, windy and eventful month for those in Westminster.  

It never rains but it pours... 

Toby Craig examines our relationship both with and within Europe and the impact on political debate.  

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the start of the Great War. That in itself has been the cause of significant argument, with Education Secretary Michael Gove leading the charge against what he sees as left-wing myths about the conflict. He singled out Blackadder’s characterisation of the First World War as a ‘misbegotten shambles’ as particularly offensive to what he views as a ‘just’ if ‘uniquely horrific’ war. 

Toby Craig reflects on the life of Nelson Mandela and his contribution to the political landscape.  

In a pithy sentence, Barack Obama masterfully captured the essence of Nelson Mandela’s influence on global politics. The ability of political leaders in a few short words to capture a mood, to shape and influence thoughts and to change the destiny of nations sometimes seems a lost and forgotten art. In a year that saw the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech and the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the assassination of one of the greatest orators of the twentieth century, John F Kennedy, it ended up being a year which will be rightly remembered for the death of another great leader of our times who understood better than most the enormous power of language.