Meacher to tackle government from the backbenches
The former minister for the environment, Michael Meacher, has announced that he will continue to fight for what he believes in despite losing his place in the cabinet.
After resigning yesterday following the government reshuffle, he has told the BBC that he plans to hold the government to account on a number of controversial issues.
‘There are issues of inequality of income distribution, of the way power is exercised in British politics today. There are major issues about how we handle the over weaning power of the United States.’
‘I suppose that’s a major issue of foreign policy and what our relationship should be and how we restore the United Nations as the rock on which international politics is decided,’ he said.
This attack comes amidst a spate of criticism targeted at the Prime Minister for treating the British constitution as ‘his own personal plaything.’
The creation of the Department for Constitutional Affairs has been perhaps the most controversial decision to come out of the reshuffle.
The Bar Council said the plans looked rushed and poorly planned: ‘The scale of the changes takes your breath away and the speed is quite remarkable.’
Whilst Bar chairman Matthias Kelly did criticise the general look of the plans, he did concede that lawyers welcomed the separation of the judiciary from the government with the removal of the Lord Chancellor. They also were supportive of the establishment of an independent Supreme Court.
After criticism of Blair’s attitude towards the constitution, Conservative leader Iain Duncan-Smith further criticised the Prime Minister, as he accused Mr Blair of acting like a ‘dictator’ over the creation of the DCA.
‘I am appalled by the way the prime minister has behaved – he should understand that the constitution is not his personal plaything and that it belongs ultimately to the people of this country.’
