WHAT is the connection between the Michael Caine film ‘Get Carter’, the murderers of Suzanne Capper and the soon to be ex Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt?
Taking politicians out of the equation amounts to the electorate emasculating itself.
Not obvious I admit. First ‘Get Carter’. Dennis Stafford’s 1967 shooting of a fruit machine cash collector inspired this classic British gangster film, but it also changed British murder law forever.
When Parliament abolished the death penalty it guaranteed to the British people that life would mean life. No convicted murderer would be released from jail without the agreement of the Home Secretary. If the Home Secretary released a dangerous murderer the electorate could throw him and his party out of office at the next election.
However in 2002 in a landmark decision the European Court of Human Rights ruled that then Home Secretary Michael Howard did not have the legal right to overrule the parole board and keep Stafford locked up. Thus the covenant between the electorate and government was broken and judges and parole boards usurped the role of the electorate and government ministers.
Just under 20 years ago 16-year-old Suzanne Capper was kidnapped, held in a house in North Manchester for a week, tortured and then driven in the boot of a car to Romiley and set on fire. She survived for four days, long enough to name her killers.
In my opinion the savagery and brutality that Suzanne suffered for 11 days was even worse than the victims of Hindley and Brady suffered. While the case was covered locally the attention of the national press was focused on the James Bulger murder, so this murder has not entered into the national memory as might have been expected.
One of Suzanne’s murderers Anthony Dudson is now up for parole. This is extraordinarily upsetting for Suzanne’s friends and family and in particular Suzanne’s mother Elizabeth Dunbar. Apart from the sheer injustice of Dudson being free while Suzanne has been dead for nearly 20 years, Mrs Dunbar is made to feel physically sick at the thought that one day she may bump into Suzanne’s killer. This must be unbearable for Mrs Dunbar and she should not have to bear it.
On Mrs Dunbar’s behalf I am making representations to the parole board. Like the Moors murderers Dudson and his fellow killers should not be released. I have no confidence that the parole board will not come to a perverse decision and release Dudson even after Mrs Dunbar’s and my representations, they are after all unaccountable and unlike the Home Secretary there are no consequences for them whatever view they take.
From the unbearably horrific to the pathetic Ealing Comedy-like performance of the Prime Minister and his Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt (I am writing this two hours before a reluctant David Cameron has to defend his Culture Secretary in the House of Commons again).
The issue is simple, Adam Smith, Hunt’s Special Advisor, conspired with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation in order to assist their takeover bid for BSkyB. He passed on invaluable information and the tactics of Murdoch’s opponents to News Corporation. It was Hunt’s job, acting in a quasi-judicial capacity, to say if the bid could go ahead, he was obliged to act in an even-handed way.
According to the Ministerial Code of Conduct, Hunt is responsible for the actions of his special advisor. Hunt must have known what Smith was up to, there is no closer relationship within government than that between a special advisor and his minister.
Hunt should therefore be sacked. The Prime Minister may delay the inevitable but I suspect Hunt will have to pay for his own tickets to the Olympics this summer. After this farce, one among many at the moment, some commentators have suggested that this and other quasi-judicial positions which are held by Ministers should be handed over to independent adjudicators.
Graham StringerLike the decision of the Court of Human Rights relating to imprisoned murderers, this would not only remove politicians from power but also the electorate. I have no doubt the Tories wanted to help Murdoch and diminish his main competition the BBC and in return they would expect electoral support from the newspapers in Murdoch’s Empire.
I also have no doubt that they would have paid an electoral price for these machinations. British people do not want BBC News replaced by Fox News, but there would be no role for the electorate if an independent adjudicator had made a similar decision.
Politicians are in bad odour following the MPs expenses scandal and the repeated experience of governments reneging on electoral promises, so it is not surprising that popular opinion is in favour of reducing the power of MPs. However taking politicians out of the equation amounts to the electorate emasculating itself.
Of course the political rascals should be thrown out of office, this is the democratic solution, it is not democratic to pass power to unaccountable quangos and individuals.
I would trust any Home Secretary I have ever known or read about from whichever party to make the right decision about Dudson, I could not say the same about a remote and unaccountable parole board.
Graham Stringer is the MP for Blackley and Broughton and the ex-leader of Manchester City Council.
