Tuesday 10 November 2009

Independent hits out over 'secret inquests'

The Independent has a short, sharp leader today on Government plans for secret inquests, headlined 'Closed justice':
"The Government's dismal push for greater secrecy in public life trundles on. A backbench amendment that would have thrown out the Government's proposals for the replacement of open inquests with secret "inquiries" was narrowly defeated in the Commons yesterday evening.
"Just as depressing as the result of the vote was the quality of the case made by the Government in favour of its bill. The only argument that the Justice Secretary, Jack Straw, could muster to justify this alteration in our existing legal arrangements is the hypothetical danger of the intelligence-gathering techniques of the security services being exposed and thereby compromised in open inquests."

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