So, finally someone in the MoD has decided to take a stand:
A military press officer is suing the Ministry of Defence and claiming that he was forced to tell "government lies" to the families of British soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Will they settle out of court, or fight it? If they fight it, the hearing should be interesting…
He is suing his employers under disability legislation, claiming that the MoD failed to make adequate provision for an existing stress illness which, he says, had been accepted by his employers as a disability, and that he was not trained for the family liaison role or offered support. Having to be "frugal with the truth" contributed to his mental anguish, he will claim, in a tribunal expected to sit later this year.
Meanwhile…
A senior judge faces the sack after saying that 'hundreds of thousands of immigrants' come to Britain to receive generous welfare payments.
Judge Ian Trigger was told yesterday that a disciplinary inquiry is to look at whether his criticisms of the links between crime, large-scale immigration and the welfare system were 'too political'.
Yeah, I hate to say ‘I told you so’. But
I did.
The official investigation has been ordered by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, who has the power, along with Justice Secretary Jack Straw, to dismiss judges who speak out of turn.
Although, as North Northwester points out,
other judges have spoken out on other subjects without being overly troubled afterwards…
A spokesman for the OJC said last night that the referral of Judge Trigger for investigation 'is not related to the judge's comments on the specific case or the sentence passed'.
No.
Of course it isn’t. It’s all just a coincidence….
When was the old procedure (you know, the one that worked and ensured the independence of the judiciary) - that a High Court judge could only be removed by a resolution in both Houses of Parliament (essentially impeachment under the Act of Settlement) - discontinued?
ReplyDelete