Natural Justice

After the proscriptions decision by Labour’s NEC, I had a quick look at the Report of the Charkrabarti Inquiry again, as she was very firm on natural justice.

Another matter which has been brought to my attention is the frequency of resort to the power of interim suspension in cases where an allegation that a member has acted in breach of the rules is before the General Secretary and/or his staff. Indeed, an early lesson that any new General Counsel might offer his/her colleagues is on the application of the vital legal principles of due process (or natural justice) and proportionality.

Shami Chakrabarti (Page 18)

She considered conforming to the principles of natural justice so important that she proposed to write conforming to them into the rules. Another shame that this was not implemented.  …

Anti-Semitism

The article, Crying Wolf at Open Democracy calls out the double standards of the Commons Home Affairs Committee report on Anti-Semitism and the dangerous and missed opportunities. In particular it notes the honesty and forward looking nature of the Chakrabarti Inquiry Report into anti-semitism in the Labour Party and questions the motives of those who voted for the Commons Committee report which spends an inordinate amount of time, conducting an inaccurate and inadequate review of anti-semitism in the Labour Party and its recent responses. The article also looks in detail at the history of the development of  and needs for a working definition of anti-semitism. It does not quote David Schnieder’s but it does make the point that the definition chosen from the EUMC is questioned and never adopted by its authors and is considered to be too censorious of critics of the Israeli government. This is a comprehensive, temperate and critical treatment of the report. I recommend it be read by anyone interested in evidence based and just policy making. …