Keir Starmer’s Human Rights Lawyer Chum is Shipwrecking His Government
From handing over the Chagos Islands to changing the law to put Gerry Adams in line for compensation, from clamping down on tweets to going after Israel, Keir Starmer has consistently made decisions that owe more to the tendentious theories of human rights lawyers than sensible politics and the national interest. Behind many of these bizarre decisions is his old chum Richard Hermer KC, a human rights lawyers of some three decades whom Starmer parachuted into the Lords to serve as his Attorney General, and whose doctrinaire Leftist legal advice is now shipwrecking his Government. The Telegraph‘s Gordon Rayner has more.
Sir Keir, it was said, trusted him to give unbiased opinions rather than trying to please him with favourable interpretations of the law. But that long career in human rights law also meant Lord Hermer had accumulated a collection of clients and cases that would not always sit comfortably with his role as a Cabinet Minister.
As we know, they included Gerry Adams, the former Sinn Fein President, whom Lord Hermer represented when he was sued by victims of IRA bombings.
Mr. Adams is now in line for taxpayer-funded compensation after Sir Keir decided to repeal a law that blocked him from claiming damages for internment in the 1970s.
Lord Hermer was acting for Mr. Adams in a private case in 2023, which was unrelated to Sir Keir’s decision to change the law, and Downing Street has refused to say whether he was involved in discussions about the law change.
But his presence in Government has been keenly felt ever since he was parachuted into the job. In accepting the role of Attorney General, he became the first person since 1922 to take on the job without ever serving in Parliament.
He was soon pressed into action following the riots sparked by the stabbing of three girls in Southport last July.
It was he who advised Sir Keir that it would be lawful to charge social media users with stirring up racial hatred online, which led to controversial prison sentences. He later said people could not “hide behind a keyboard” and would find themselves in a cell if they incited racial and religious hatred online. …
But it is Lord Hermer’s involvement in decisions about foreign policy that have the most far-reaching implications.
He was deeply involved in the decision to withdraw the U.K.’s objections to arrest warrants being issued against Israeli officials by the International Criminal Court, and was instrumental in the decision to suspend some export permits for weapons to Israel last year.
He also said Britain had an “obligation” under international law to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, even though an International Court of Justice advisory opinion on the matter was in no way legally binding.
Although he has never been an MP, Lord Hermer has staunch Left-wing views that have not wavered since his student days. …
Critics believe he has become too powerful in Government. He has issued instructions to lawyers in Government departments to “stand up for the rule of law” and send him “full and frank advice” on the legality of Government decisions.
This, Dr. Yuan Yi Zhu, a senior fellow at Policy Exchange, said in the Spectator, is a sign that the Attorney General effectively held a veto over policies and that lawyers were giving directions to elected politicians, rather than the other way around.
Worth reading in full.
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Good work, gve that man an award.
I suspect he was on the tax payer teet before the last election.
The stabbing of three girls in Southport last July. Is that all it was, really?
Not the brutal murder of 3 young innocent children?
It’s almost like they are trying to erase this truly horrific event.
Its an outrage!
The Telegraph journalist may not have intended to downplay the significance and seriousness of this horrific event, but the seemingly casual glossing over of those awful murders seems to suggest it was an insignificant event.
I truly feel for the parents of those children, its almost like society has forgotten about their tragic loss. Or is being forced to forget!
Well I’ll be closely watching proceedings and anything being reported online 20th Jan> regarding the mass child-killer because I couldn’t give a toss about a U.S President’s inauguration, which is only a one day event anyway. These trials will last weeks. Plus it’s the trial of that other migrant who stabbed the soldier and that Labour councilor’s trial too. Just another migrant killing another white person here. How many’s that now? Aren’t there any white on white killings any more? It doesn’t feel like it. God knows how many of these happen daily and we’re not aware of them. The culprit won’t be deported because ‘human rights’; ”A man has been charged with murder following a fatal stabbing in Luton. Abdul Kasim, 25, was charged on Monday with the murder of 63-year-old Martin Sullivan, who died after being injured at an address in Highbury Road. Mr Sullivan was pronounced dead shortly after being taken to hospital by emergency services. His daughter paid tribute to him, saying: “My dad was a very loving and caring person who would help anyone. “He will be very much missed by all his friends and family. “He’ll never be forgotten.” Kasim, of Perrysfield Road, Cheshunt,… Read more »
I’m not suggesting the brutal murders of Jo Cox and David Amess (MPs) are any less serious than any other murder, but we don’t try and eliminate their murders from collective memory!
How has the Country become a nation, via its government, who seems to not care about what happens to children, and seemingly specifically white girls?
I logged back in to say something similar but you beat me to it.
No. Eleven girls and two adults were stabbed. Three of the children were stabbed to death.Murdered.
And when people complain on social media they’re the bad guys?
Lord Hermer is evil. Sack him.
And what about all the other 8 little girls and their two adult defenders, who were all hospitalised in critical condition, some with “life-changing injuries”? They must feel entirely forgotten by the world.
Starmer is completely inept and has no political nouce. He is a legalistic automaton, devoid of common sense. He is a rules based robot, who prefers bad outcomes, so long as they are legal outcomes. Yet, as has been shown, the advice he has received over the Chagos islands, is wrong.
Starmer is stuck in an error loop, and he doesn’t know how to get out of it. He needs to be re-booted and re-programed.
Or replaced – by an actual functioning robot?
Hahaha! Good idea!
It could hardly do a worse job then Two Tier Not Here Again Kier.
Clueless, again, from Will Jones.
‘… many of these bizarre decisions …’?
Deliberate, premeditated, planned, and all intended to tear down, harm, spoil the fabric of the UK.
Why does Jones think Starmer wants to be popular with those Labour hates? Just follow the Democrat playbook and their next steps are blindingly obvious.
By focusing his guns on the wrong target, Jones wastes time and opportunity to fight Labour.
May I encourage fellow blogees to be more discerning.
Starmer seems to want Labour to be even worse than the Democrats under Biden, seems like its working already!
Total destruction of everything worthwhile.
What a surprise, early life check comfirmed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hermer,_Baron_Hermer#Early_life,_family_and_education
NO! Will Jones is very far from being “clueless”— your comment is unjust and stupid.
Why don’t you set up your own website and show us all how much better you can do it?
Excellent documentary brought to my attention by UK Column. Slaughtered on Suspicion about the 2001 Foot & Mouth mass cull that is thought to have culled 11 million animals and around 80% of the farms were free of the disease, but were culled anyway. I played a part disinfecting and, at the time, thought it of a 1940 moment. I had no internet then. I also remember clubbing in Hereford and having to close my window when driving home through the Herefordshire countryside because of the stench of the burning carcases.
https://www.ukcolumn.org/video/insight-slaughtered-on-suspicion
I have posted links to this excellent documentary a few times but it is always worth repeating.
And guess who was behind the flawed model used to slaughter innocent animals.
That would be Ferguson pants down. Also goes to show what a criminal Blair was before the WMDs PsyOp.
Sir Two-Tier aided and abetted by Lord Hermetic. Knight and Peer of the Realm complicit in lawyerly insider trading. Someone pass the nosegay and smelling salts asap, the parliamentary drains are up to mischief again.
Well done to Will Jones and the DS for drawing attention to this Extreme Leftist man Two Tier chose as Attorney General, who has just committed “Gross Judicial Overreach” by warning the entire world that they are subject to the same rules as jurors on the case of the Southport Stabber!!! It reminds me of the Marxist Common Purpose motto “Go Beyond Authority”. He has actually threatened ALL SOCIAL MEDIA USERS with CONTEMPT OF COURT charges !!! Who the blazes does he think he is? Warning issued about commenting on trial of alleged Southport attacker “It said: “While proceedings are active, the Attorney General is reminding editors, publishers and SOCIAL MEDIA USERS that fair and accurate reporting of legal proceedings held in public in good faith is permitted”. “However, you may be at risk of being in contempt of court if you publish material or comment online that is inaccurate, unfair or involves discussion or commentary which could influence the jury’s deliberations.” WHAT?????? Some apt comments from the public: — “I think the attorney General has gone a bit to far in their suppression of freedom of speech when they said “unfair or involves discussion or commentary which could influence… Read more »
—“Judge needs to wind his neck in. He controls his court room, not the country.”
Disgusting.
I expect his fees are paid by tax payers?
Two-Tier isn’t a politician. He’s a Human Rights Lawyer. This is the manifestation of Mandelson’s “the age of democracy is over” and Blair’s Constitutional Wrecking Ball.
We’ll get one last chance to overturn the imposition of governance by Human Rights Lawyers at the next General Election.
We’d better take it. Whether you support everything Reform proposes is irrelevant …. first we need to restore democracy.
Then we need to start arguing about what we do with it.
Presumably consent has been given. Its a case of wrecking themselves. They are a wreck.
Some of you may remember the Monty Python sketch, ‘Philosopher’s Football Match’, from the early 1970s. All the philosophers on the pitch are so self absorbed and tied in knots with ‘logical’ reasoning that they fail to understand that the point of the game is to score a goal. Eventually, one of the players has a ‘Eureka’ moment and scores but the other argue that it has not really happened. Worth watching again, as it is readily available online. It is a good allegory for Britain today.