Giving Lord Goldsmith the badge of a Law Officer of the Crown, is a bit like giving Jesse James a Sheriff's star in the old Wild West. In the first place, the Attorney General bought his peerage from his old friend Tony Blair, who has said, that he does not believe that anyone has bought or sold peerages. It might be remembered that Tony Blair has also said that he believes he did the right thing in going to war with Iraq. If it was just a matter of Tony Blair being a Walter Mitty character, we could simply laugh it off. But, he is the central character of a police investigation into corruption and the police file has now been handed into the Crown Prosecution Service. Lord Goldsmith has superintendence over the CPS.
"The attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, may also be consulted about any possible prosecution, though he has said that he would appoint an independent senior counsel to review material and advise on prosecutions, in order to avoid any appearance of conflict of interest" (Grauniad).
I was a teenager in the 60s when the payola scandal broke. I fail to see how he who pays the piper calls the tune avoids any appearance of conflict of interest. Its a bit like the kid riding a bike and saying "Look mam, no hands".
The police have recommended that Ruth Turner, Lord Levy and Sir Christopher Evans are charged. When Ruth Turner was feeling the heat over her perverting the course of justice, her lawyers decided to advance the under duress legal argument and leaked the document, she had sent to Jonathan Powell, to Nick Robinson. Lord Goldsmith tried to prevent the BBC from mentioning this document and some of the content, but the injunction was later lifted.
I suppose it is too much to ask that Lord Goldsmith does the honourable thing and resign or stand down completely from any input whatsoever into the decision-making in this case? He should publicly make a decision on this within 14 days, or interested parties can seek an application for judicial review and get the High Court to rule on his bias.
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