Category / British Parliament

by Crimson Tazvinzwa

London Bridge terror attack: when should terrorists be released from prison?

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Armed police stand guard near London Bridge after the attack. Photograph: Daniel Sorabji/AFP via Getty Images

Are terrorism cases dealt with differently from other cases?///BY CRIMSON TAZVINZWA

After the terrorist attack in London last week, political parties in the UK are blaming each other.

A man recently released from prison for a terrorism offence killed two people in a terrorist attack that has been leapt upon by politicians ahead of the election next week.

London Bridge attack was one of dozens of convicted terrorists released early from prison in Britain; reaction from Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy.

Terrorism

Terrorism is the use or threat of action, both in and outside of the UK, designed to influence any international government organisation or to intimidate the public.  It must also be for the purpose of advancing a political, religious, racial or ideological cause.

Examples;

  • serious violence against a person or damage to property,
  • endangering a person’s life (other than that of the person committing the action),
  • creating a serious risk to the health or safety of the public or a section of the public,
  • action designed to seriously interfere with or seriously to disrupt an electronic system.

The attacker, Usman Khan, had been attending a conference on the rehabilitation of offenders. He killed Saskia Jones, 23, and Jack Merritt, 25, and was himself shot dead by police.

UK counterterrorism police on Saturday searched for clues into how a man imprisoned for terrorism offenses before his release last year managed to stab several people before being tackled by bystanders and shot dead by officers on London Bridge. Two people were killed and three wounded

Terrorism crimes are difficult to police in that the sentencing, rehabilitation and parole are all emotive subjects that are best debated outside of an election cycle.

Terrorism crimes and terrorist-related offences are subject to the criminal justice system in the same way as all other crimes. The CPS reviews the case and makes a charging decision in line with the Code for Crown Prosecutors. However, terrorism offences are distinct from other types of crime in that individuals who commit terrorism-related offences have political, religious racial and/or ideological motivations, unlike typical criminal motivations, which may be personal gain or revenge, for example. The CPS and Metropolitan Police have specialist units that were set up specifically to undertake terrorism cases and there are four other police Counter Terrorism Units (CTUs) around the country.

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by Crimson Tazvinzwa

Labour’s Lisa Nandy will vote for Boris Johnson’s BREXIT ‘deal’ which will lead to reducing workers rights

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If general election were to be held today the Conservatives would garner 58 marjority seats in parliament///CRIMSON TAZVINZWA; AIWA! NO!/

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by Crimson Tazvinzwa

U.K. Supreme Court rules Boris Johnson’s suspension of parliament was illegal

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What now? And where to from here?

 

In a major blow to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Britain’s highest court ruled Tuesday that his decision to suspend Parliament for five weeks in the crucial countdown to the country’s Brexit deadline was illegal///CRIMSON TAZVINZWA//

The unanimous Supreme Court ruling declared the order to suspend Parliament “void and of no effect.”

READ MORE: Boris Johnson urges world leaders to see beyond Brexit as he heads to U.N.

Supreme Court President Brenda Hale said the suspension “was unlawful because it had the effect of frustrating or preventing the ability of Parliament to carry out its constitutional functions without reasonable justification.”

She said the court’s decision means Parliament was never legally suspended and is technically still sitting.

In this nation without a written constitution, the case marked a rare confrontation between the prime minister, the courts and Parliament over their rights and responsibilities.

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by Crimson Tazvinzwa

Boris Johnson could soon be forced to resign as prime minister and make way for Jeremy Corbyn

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Boris Johnson.Getty

  • UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is quickly running out of options after opposition parties agreed to veto his request for an October election.
  • The agreement means that Johnson is likely to soon face a choice between breaking his promise to take Britain out of the European Union by the end of October or stepping down as prime minister.
  • Johnson’s resignation would leave opposition parties the opportunity to appoint a caretaker prime minister who would be charged with delaying Brexit before calling a general election.

Boris Johnson could soon be forced to resign as prime minister. Here’s why;

Johnson became prime minister in July on a promise of taking the UK out of the European Union on October 31 with or without a deal.

But last week that plan collapsed after opposition members of Parliament passed a law designed to force Johnson to seek a three-month delay to Brexit.

Johnson immediately tried to overturn this by forcing an early general election before Britain’s planned exit date. However, opposition parties will on Monday vote to veto Johnson’s request when he makes it for a second time.

This means that Johnson’s plan has all but run out of road and he is likely to soon face a simple but terrible choice between two options — neither of which is good.

1. Break his promise to deliver Brexit on October 31

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Opposition members of Parliament last week passed a law which when it receives royal assent on Monday will force whoever is prime minister on October 16 to request a three-month delay to Brexit.

Without an early election, Johnson has no hope of overturning this law — meaning that if nothing else changes he would be legally obliged to break his promise to take Britain out of the EU, “do or die,” on October 31. Doing so would risk a collapse in his support among Brexit voters and could even lead to a leadership challenge within his party.

Because of this risk, Johnson has repeatedly insisted that there are “no circumstances” under which he would seek a delay to Brexit, saying on Thursday that he would sooner “be dead in a ditch” than comply with the law.

Some Downing Street sources have suggested in recent days that the prime minister could simply break the law. However, the Attorney General and other senior ministers have insisted the prime minister has now assured them he will not do this. This means he really has only one other option.

2. Resign as prime minister

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If opposition parties refuse to give Johnson an October election and if he decides he cannot break his promise to deliver Brexit, then Johnson very quickly runs out of other options.

Last week, one senior minister told The Times that under those circumstances Johnson would opt instead to resign as prime minister. His official representative on Friday repeatedly refused to rule this out when asked by journalists at a regular briefing in Parliament.

As even the Conservative commentator Paul Goodman points out on Monday: “If there is an escape from this trap other than resignation, we would love to know what it is.”

Under this scenario, Johnson would step down and make way for opposition parties to form a government instead. Because of the defection of Conservative MP Phillip Lee and Johnson’s decision to oust 21 Conservative members of Parliament last week, the prime minister no longer has a working majority in the House of Commons.

If Johnson did resign, the queen would have little choice but to look to opposition parties to try to form a government. Johnson would then become the leader of the opposition, and a new prime minister — drawn from the opposition — would take over.

A caretaker prime minister takes over

Jeremy Corbyn. Getty

As the leader of the largest opposition party, Jeremy Corbyn would then be best placed to lead this caretaker government.

Other opposition parties are reluctant to make him prime minister even temporarily. But they could, in theory, agree to do so if he committed to calling an election as soon as he secures an extension to Brexit, as he has already offered to do.

Alternatively, Corbyn could agree to allow another opposition politician to fill the role.

This would be an utterly extraordinary series of events and in ordinary times would be dismissed as mere fantasy.

However, these are not ordinary times, and such an outcome could work for both Johnson and Corbyn.

For Corbyn, this scenario would allow him to prevent a no-deal Brexit and potentially become prime minister, before going into a general election in which he would hope to win.

For Johnson, it would allow him to avoid breaking his promise while blaming Labour for the Brexit delay. He would also then be in a good position to win the next election.

So could this be where the UK ends up in the next few weeks? We will find out very soon.

52.6368778-1.1397592
by Crimson Tazvinzwa

British Opposition parties agree to vote against Boris Johnson’s snap election

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‘The people of this country will have to choose’: Johnson vows to push for snap election as opposition MPs seek Brexit delay///CRIMSON TAZVINZWA

Another vote is due to be held on Monday, after Boris Johnson’s visit to Farmleigh House, Dublin.

OPPOSITION PARTIES IN the UK have agreed to block Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s request for a snap general election until a no-deal Brexit has been prevented.

Johnson is to table a second motion to dissolve parliament on Monday, after a vote on Wednesday failed to reach the required two-thirds majority (298 ayes to 56 noes). 

Yesterday Johnson said yet againthat he didn’t want an election: “… But frankly I don’t see any other way. It’s the only way to get this thing moving.”

“Boris Johnson is on the run,” Plaid Cymru leader Liz Saville Roberts told Sky News.

“As parliamentarians whose priority is to stop a no-deal Brexit, our job is to make sure the Act [to stop a no-deal Brexit] – which is to be granted royal assent today or over the weekend – is put into effect and that we remain here as parliamentarians to make sure that the Prime Minister does his duty by the law.”

The Labour Party, which has wavered over whether to back a snap election, a will not back Johnson’s bid for an election, according to Reuters News and the BBC.

Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon said that an early election is “a question of ‘when’ not ‘if’ – but Johnson mustn’t be allowed to dictate the timing as a device to avoid scrutiny and force through a ‘no deal’ Brexit”.

The SNP relishes the prospect of an election. But while our party interest might be served by voting for an election now, it is in the wider public interest to deny a PM threatening to defy the law any ability to cut and run in his own interests. We’ll act in the public interest.

Layla Moran of the Liberal Democrats said that she’s not convinced that a general election would “solve anything”. “If you really want Brexit stop, you take it back to the people with the option to Remain and you vote to remain in the EU.”

A Conservative Group for Europe carried out a 10,000-people strong poll of British voters indicated that a snap election would produce another hung parliament:

The results indicated that the Conservatives would secure 311 seats (-6); Labour would win 242 (-20); the Liberal Democrats would increase their take to 21 (+9); the Scottish National Party would go up to 52 (+17); Plaid Cymru would get 4 MPs (no change); the Green Party would get 1 seat (no change); and one more would go to ‘others’.

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