Gary's views

Gary's weekly views

Each week an article by Gary has appeared in the Plympton Plymstock and Ivybridge News in South West Devon. The articles are published here

JUDGES

1000 years ago, when there was a Conservative Government and I was a young minister in the Lord Chancellors department with 15 minutes of death or glory at the despatch box every four weeks, Dennis Skinner rose and posed a very simple question.
“Why shouldn’t judges be elected?”

He sat down as I rose, huge file in trembling hands, to reply. The House was nearly full, members ambling in noisily for Prime Minister’s Question Time. My mind went a complete blank. I had never considered the matter, had never been briefed on the matter, it had never been discussed in the department, there was not a single note in the file about it. I looked across to the box in which civil servants sat peering into the eyes of my senior advisor, a despairing look on my face. I can remember it now: he shrugged. I turned to face the House. They could see the fear in my eyes and a hush descended. They scented a minister in free fall, the very thing the Commons likes best. I waffled, I stuttered and squeezed out a few meaningless words, sitting down to unimpressed silence on my side and jeers from those opposite. The curse of Skinner had struck again.

But his question deserves to be explored. One of the hot issues today is whether judges are out of touch with public opinion on the sentences they hand down. In relation to child sex offenders, I think they are. There have been too many recent examples of soft sentences.

What’s the solution? Politicians can pontificate, the media can take off in one of its periodic collective rants, but the independence of the judiciary is something we rightly treasure. Better guidance, tougher sentencing laws would help, but in the end a judge in his courtroom is fiercely independent, and rightly so.
So perhaps judges should stand in the court of public approval before they don their wigs and robes. What if every five years or so they had to face a vote of confidence, a vote based on their sentencing record? The Americans elect many of their judges. It would be a radical departure for us, but no more so than a partially elected House of Lords, which seems to be what we are rumbling towards.
So in this brave new world in which we live, perhaps it is time to consider this. Do you want to elect your judges?

posted by Nigel on Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Gary's weekly views

Each week an article by Gary has appeared in the Plympton Plymstock and Ivybridge News in South West Devon. The articles are published here

SAVE THE PLANET

An elderly man was recently sentenced to 15 years in jail. “But your honour, I’m 87 years old, I can’t possibly do all that!”

“Well, just do what you can,” the judge replied.
Helping to save our planet is like that. It is possible to be overwhelmed with the sheer scale of the environmental disaster that threatens us and to take the view that it is all too much for us to do, so we end up doing nothing. What’s the point of me recycling if my neighbour doesn’t? What’s the point of Britain reducing carbon emissions if America doesn’t?

But we all have to do what we can.

As I have mentioned before, I have become convinced, thanks largely to the evidence produced by the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth, that global warming is genuinely happening and that we humans are probably causing it with all of the carbon we have been pumping into the atmosphere since the industrial revolution and that this is likely to have dire consequences for our planet. As the people of China and India start to enjoy the cars and fridges that we all take for granted, so the problem will get worse. The Attenborough Doomsday scenario could easily kick in sooner than we think.

The only solution is to reduce our carbon emissions: i.e. live in a way that uses less fossil fuels, gas oil and coal. How do we do that? Travel less in our own cars, or buy a more energy efficient car; insulate our house more effectively so it doesn’t take as much to heat it; recycle because it takes a lot less energy to make a Pepsi can from used cans than to start from scratch. If we are really ambitious we can explore the use of solar panels and micro-generation of energy from renewable sources.

At the same time we must increase pressure on government to make environmental issues a priority and to encourage them to advocate for this around the world, so that new enforceable international agreements on carbon reductions are made and kept.

Friends of the Earth have calculated that we need to save 3% of our energy emissions each year to stop global warming reaching the point that almost anything could happen. To me that sounds manageable, something we could all have a crack at, something that could even be fun! I am going to try and do this. Will you?

posted by Nigel on Monday, June 12, 2006

Gary's weekly views

Each week an article by Gary has appeared in the Plympton Plymstock and Ivybridge News in South West Devon. The articles are published here

WORLD CUP FEVER

Will you be watching the world cup, or are you leaving the country for the next few weeks? My enthusiastic Westminster intern has patched into my electronic diary every single game starting with Germany v Costa Rica (who cares?) at 5pm on Friday 10th July. I can now bore for Britain on the most irrelevant of fixtures.

I will only watch the England games. Actually, I am supporting two teams in the world cup: England, and any team playing France. (Only joking!) But I know there are people out there who will be watching every match. Sad.

One of the things I will enjoy, apart from the dazzling skills of Rooney (if fit) and Gerrard, are the displays of passion from the partisan supporters. The flag waving, the songs, the painted faces, the improvised musical accompaniment, the anthems, the tears and the cheers - the whole works; I’m really looking forward to it. I actually love patriotism. I love my own country and get very partisan whenever England are playing any sport. But it does not stop there. I love to see others supporting their own countries in just the same way. I believe that patriotism is natural and healthy and should be encouraged and enjoyed.

There are modern thinkers who believe that soon the old-fashioned concept of nationality will become obsolete; that in a globalising world it won’t be long before we all consider ourselves citizens of the world. Garbage, I’m afraid. We define ourselves in part by our nationality, and always have. There is nothing wrong with this. A healthy patriotism, respecting the equal patriotism of others, is surely the antidote to aggressive and unacceptable nationalism that seeks to dominate. If anything in the United Kingdom we should preach greater pride in our country, not less and with it the traditional values of tolerance and respect that have long been British characteristics.

If we are to build a better world, we have to cut with the grain of human nature and not against it. We should not try and squeeze people, as we have in the past, into artificial borders, but allow full expression to national identity.
If I do get around to watching Holland v Ivory Coast at 5pm on June 16th it will not be because any interest in the result. It will be to enjoy the spectacle of thousands of people loving their country just as much as I love mine.

posted by Nigel on Monday, June 12, 2006