I thought David Blunkett was bad ...

I haven't worked out whether, in my casting of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, it would be Theresa May or Chris Grayling in the part of the Queen of Hearts, believing they know better than judges:

No, no!' said the Queen. 'Sentence first—verdict afterwards.'

'Stuff and nonsense!' said Alice loudly. 'The idea of having the sentence first!'

'Hold your tongue!' said the Queen, turning purple.

'I won't!' said Alice.

Off with her head!' the Queen shouted at the top of her voice.

Given his public support for the European Convention and the Court on Today this morning, one wonders how much longer Simon Hughes will survive in the post-Grieve Justice Department. Incidentally, Simon has not got around to including his appointment as Minister of State in the biography on his constituency web-site. I wouldn't bother, if I were he.

The devolution angle

Willie Rennie, leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, has commented:
Putting human rights at the heart of the Scottish Parliament was endorsed by the people of Scotland in the 1997 Referendum. Any attempt by the Tories to rip human rights out of the Scotland Act would betray the votes of people in that referendum.
The Tories in Scotland are seeking to repackage themselves as a non-toxic, mainstream, centre ground party. They now face an urgent challenge to prove that by putting a block on their Conservative leaders in Westminster ripping human rights out of the Scottish Parliament. They may only have one MP in Scotland but they could work with us and others in the Scottish Parliament to prevent this.
Scots have voted for devolution within the United Kingdom twice, Wales just the once, and Scotland has its own legislation, but some of the same considerations apply. The Westminster government would have to amend the Government of Wales Act 1998 if it wanted to stop Welsh citizens taking cases against their government to Strasbourg.