Interesting post by Craig Murray about another attempt to silence some journalists using Britain's libel laws - ever popular with users, if not those who fall foul of them. They've got Geraldine Proudler of Olswang - who specialises in "reputation management issues" - to write to various publications who have chosen to highlight the work Tory MP Tony Baldry has done for one James Ibori. He, for the record, is a Nigerian politician. The UK government has frozen £21m of his assets. They are a lot of assets for a man who earned $25,000 per annum as Governor of Delta State between 1999 and 2007.
Interesting post by Craig Murray about another attempt to silence some journalists using Britain's libel laws - ever popular with users, if not those who fall foul of them.
They've got Geraldine Proudler of Olswang - who specialises in "reputation management issues" - to write to various publications who have chosen to highlight the work Tory MP Tony Baldry has done for one James Ibori.
He, for the record, is a Nigerian politician. The UK government has frozen £21m of his assets. They are a lot of assets for a man who earned $25,000 per annum as Governor of Delta State between 1999 and 2007.
Some readers will know that the post I wrote earlier this week about Tony Baldry MP and James Ibori has been taken off this site. More on that in due course. In the meantime, I would recommend that everyone take a look at this blog post from Will Jordan, which I believe is both fair comment, and self-evidently in the public interest. It seems to me that the core issue here is, as Craig Murray also points out, the extent to which it is appropriate, in a modern democracy, for MPs to hold down second (and third, and fourth and fifth) jobs without creating serious conflicts of interest which threaten to compromise their independence as MPs. Tony Baldry has been at pains to stress the extent to which his work as a barrister is distinct from his activities as an MP. And yet the website of his own legal chambers, One Essex Court (accessed and archived 6/3/10), seems to blur this distinction, stating that: Recent Heads of Chambers include Sir Ivan Lawrence QC, a leading Conservative MP for over twenty years, and Parliamentary connections are maintained under One Essex Court's current head Tony Baldry MP. The question of whether or not individual MPs are currently "acting within the rules" is, to my mind, secondary to this much larger question of whether the rules, in their current form, are really doing an effective job of maintaining the robust independence we need from our Parliamentarians in order to sustain a healthy democracy.
Some readers will know that the post I wrote earlier this week about Tony Baldry MP and James Ibori has been taken off this site. More on that in due course.
In the meantime, I would recommend that everyone take a look at this blog post from Will Jordan, which I believe is both fair comment, and self-evidently in the public interest.
It seems to me that the core issue here is, as Craig Murray also points out, the extent to which it is appropriate, in a modern democracy, for MPs to hold down second (and third, and fourth and fifth) jobs without creating serious conflicts of interest which threaten to compromise their independence as MPs.
Tony Baldry has been at pains to stress the extent to which his work as a barrister is distinct from his activities as an MP. And yet the website of his own legal chambers, One Essex Court (accessed and archived 6/3/10), seems to blur this distinction, stating that:
Recent Heads of Chambers include Sir Ivan Lawrence QC, a leading Conservative MP for over twenty years, and Parliamentary connections are maintained under One Essex Court's current head Tony Baldry MP.
The question of whether or not individual MPs are currently "acting within the rules" is, to my mind, secondary to this much larger question of whether the rules, in their current form, are really doing an effective job of maintaining the robust independence we need from our Parliamentarians in order to sustain a healthy democracy.
In July 2009 Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague asked North Oxfordshire MP Tony Baldry to chair the Conservative Party's Human Right Commission. The Commission is made up of approximately 20 members, including members of the House of Commons, the House of Lords, senior members of the voluntary side of the Conservative Party, and a number of Conservative Parliamentary Candidates, who have a particular interest in Human Rights. The Conservative Human Rights Commission seeks to work with other groups concerned about Human Rights and to ensure that the importance of Human Rights is kept high on the political agenda. "The Conservative Human Rights Commission has been doing some very good work since its inception in 2005 under the leadership of Gary Streeter MP and then Stephen Crabb MP, who has become an Opposition Whip," said Tony Baldry. "By definition, much Human Rights work is done painstakingly, country by country and amongst the members of the Conservative Human Rights Commission are those who have an outstanding expertise and record on campaigning in support of Human Rights in countries such as Burma, China, North Korea and Zimbabwe, and more recently, in support of the Human Rights of minority Tamils in Sri Lanka. That work will continue.
In July 2009 Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague asked North Oxfordshire MP Tony Baldry to chair the Conservative Party's Human Right Commission.
The Commission is made up of approximately 20 members, including members of the House of Commons, the House of Lords, senior members of the voluntary side of the Conservative Party, and a number of Conservative Parliamentary Candidates, who have a particular interest in Human Rights.
The Conservative Human Rights Commission seeks to work with other groups concerned about Human Rights and to ensure that the importance of Human Rights is kept high on the political agenda.
"The Conservative Human Rights Commission has been doing some very good work since its inception in 2005 under the leadership of Gary Streeter MP and then Stephen Crabb MP, who has become an Opposition Whip," said Tony Baldry. "By definition, much Human Rights work is done painstakingly, country by country and amongst the members of the Conservative Human Rights Commission are those who have an outstanding expertise and record on campaigning in support of Human Rights in countries such as Burma, China, North Korea and Zimbabwe, and more recently, in support of the Human Rights of minority Tamils in Sri Lanka. That work will continue.
