Don't mention the fiscal stimulus

By DAILY MAIL COMMENT
Updated:

Gordon Brown

Gordon Brown slipped up when he had 'saved the world'

All right, we know that Mr Brown let slip to the Commons yesterday that he had saved the world, but it would usually be sensible to pause before taking advice on how to run our economy from a German finance minister known to frown on Anglo-Saxon free markets who earlier this year starred in a rap video wearing an Afro wig.

But Peer Steinbruck's intervention  -  now endorsed by Chancellor's Merkel's budget spokesman, making it clear that he was 'exactly expressing the views of the German Grand Coalition', and not as a lone voice  -  is as timely as it is significant.

All around the world, governments are rushing to spend and borrow their way out of the recession, despite no country in history ever managing to do this.

Yet now Germany has turned its back on this consensus. When Mr Steinbruck says Alistair Darling's VAT cut doesn't 'pass the economic test', the Mail agrees. When he argues it's going to take Britain a generation to pay off all this debt, we concur.

Let's hope that even if his words don't give our Government pause, they do at least stiffen the resolve of the Tories, who have with some courage been ploughing a lonely furrow in their opposition to Mr Brown's borrowing spree.

Should David Cameron worry about his isolation, he should remember that had Margaret Thatcher not found the courage to ignore the 364 economists who urged her to spend her way out of trouble in 1981, none of us would be nearly as well off today.

Lord launches a 'sour and bad manner attacked' on Jack Straw

Are we supposed to be impressed that Lord Lester, a lawyer who has made his lucrative career out of exploiting human rights law, now steps forward to defend his livelihood (and that of thousands of his well-heeled colleagues!)  -  by launching a sour and bad mannered attack on Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary?

The Mail holds no candle for Mr Straw, who holds the dubious distinction of having introduced the Human Rights Act in Britain ten years ago.

Lord Lester
Jack Straw

Lord Lester, left, critcised Justice Secretary Jack Straw on the Human Rights Act

But when the Justice Secretary told this paper at the weekend that action must be taken to limit the damage being done by the Act, he deserved full support for recognising that the great majority of the British people, while supporting some of the Act's more sensible provisions, are exasperated by many of the insane judicial decisions made in its name.

Mr Straw said he understood why the public saw the Act as a villain's charter, and mooted a Bill of Rights and Responsibilities to mitigate its malign affects.

As a result of human rights legislation, foreign rapists are permitted to stay in Britain, paedophiles allowed to use their local school gym, prisoners on heroin compensated for being deprived of their drugs behind bars, police are prevented from revealing the identity of escaped convicts, and terror suspects can neither be deported nor detained.

This is the Britain that has been created by human rights legislation, and the likes of Lord Lester have profited greatly from the profound damage they have done to our ancient legal system.

There are 1,000 British lawyers specialising in human rights, and between them they grab a huge share of the £2billion legal aid budget.

But one of the most devastating effects of the Human Rights Act is that it has, by allowing so much scope to interpret the legislation, turned judges into legal activists who frequently make decisions that should be the prerogative of Parliament.

If Lord Lester but realised it, this is doing untold damage to the standing of judges in the eyes of public and politicians.

Lord Lester is a man of very considerable talents. It is a pity that he has childishly flounced out of the Government and criticised Mr Straw over his decision to precipitate a national debate on a matter that should be of huge concern to everyone  -  especially the legal profession.



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