Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Court rules against Government on Prince Charles
Whilst one set of royals pursue their own court case in France, a far more interesting case has just come to a conclusion in which an appeal court has just ruled that correspondence between Prince Charles and government ministers, which is believed to detail attempts by the heir to the throne to influence government policy, must be published.
Yesterday's Independent reports that judges have decided that releasing the Prince’s letters, the first time such an order has been made, was in the public interest. They have said that there should be openness over any sway the Prince seeks to hold over government.
The court ruled that correspondence from 2004 and 2005 between Prince Charles and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills; the Department of Health; the Department for Children, Schools and Families (now named the Department for Education) must all be released.
The ruling also relates to letters from the same time period from the Prince to: the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; the Department for Culture, Media and Sport; the Northern Ireland Office and the Cabinet Office.
The paper says that the information commissioner previously refused to release the details but the Administrative Appeals Chamber said the commissioner gave “insufficient weight to the public interest”.
The Whitehall departments argued that a decision to release the Prince’s letters would breach unwritten constitutional rules on the relationship between the monarchy and the government, and that it would discourage the prince from speaking frankly. However the Appeal Court clearly and quite rightly thought that the public interest overruled such considerations.
Yesterday's Independent reports that judges have decided that releasing the Prince’s letters, the first time such an order has been made, was in the public interest. They have said that there should be openness over any sway the Prince seeks to hold over government.
The court ruled that correspondence from 2004 and 2005 between Prince Charles and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills; the Department of Health; the Department for Children, Schools and Families (now named the Department for Education) must all be released.
The ruling also relates to letters from the same time period from the Prince to: the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; the Department for Culture, Media and Sport; the Northern Ireland Office and the Cabinet Office.
The paper says that the information commissioner previously refused to release the details but the Administrative Appeals Chamber said the commissioner gave “insufficient weight to the public interest”.
The Whitehall departments argued that a decision to release the Prince’s letters would breach unwritten constitutional rules on the relationship between the monarchy and the government, and that it would discourage the prince from speaking frankly. However the Appeal Court clearly and quite rightly thought that the public interest overruled such considerations.
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Yeah, Peter.
Of course the UK government has since legislated to ensure that the prince's correspondence and attempts to influence policies can't be made public in future.
Face it - this is a rotten, corrupt, undemocratic state. We are only allowed to vote into power the same elite regardless of party - yours is no exception.
Clegg's idea of reform was to bring in AV - a voting system no-one, not even the LibDems wanted. His failure has ensured that we're stuck with FPTP in perpetuity.
As for his proposal regarding the Lords - 80% elected for 15 years. (Instead of 100% elected or scrapping the place). Now we're stuck with the most undemocratic legislature in the western world for another century. A patronage pit for brown tongued obedient politicians and bishops of the CoE.
The catalogue of calamities is almost endless - as well as keeping a most right wing bunch of wealthy Tories in almost unbridled power.
I expect this comment will be excluded under 'negative sniping'.
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Of course the UK government has since legislated to ensure that the prince's correspondence and attempts to influence policies can't be made public in future.
Face it - this is a rotten, corrupt, undemocratic state. We are only allowed to vote into power the same elite regardless of party - yours is no exception.
Clegg's idea of reform was to bring in AV - a voting system no-one, not even the LibDems wanted. His failure has ensured that we're stuck with FPTP in perpetuity.
As for his proposal regarding the Lords - 80% elected for 15 years. (Instead of 100% elected or scrapping the place). Now we're stuck with the most undemocratic legislature in the western world for another century. A patronage pit for brown tongued obedient politicians and bishops of the CoE.
The catalogue of calamities is almost endless - as well as keeping a most right wing bunch of wealthy Tories in almost unbridled power.
I expect this comment will be excluded under 'negative sniping'.
# posted by 
: 11:18 AM
: 11:18 AM<< Home
