Labour Hypocrisy? Nothing New There Then.

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3268001/Labour-law-chief-s-2million-human-rights-hypocrisy-Lord-Falconer-represents-torture-state-Djibouti-court.html

[Gromit]

What has a corruption case got to do with Human Rights?

If he was defending their human rights record then there would be hypocrisy, but he ain't.

Defence lawyers/barristers/counsel do not have to like cluents they work for, and the guilty are allowed to have their defence heard.

A stupid article and a bit desperate as Falconer is a Labour asbeen.

[mikey4444]

The DM is scraping the bottom of the barrel here a bit. There is no indication that the Labour Party is being hypocritical at all.

Even people who may be guilty need to be represented in court. Anyway, Falconer is representing his law firm and his client, not the Labour Party.

[sandyRoe]

A QC, it's said, is like a London taxi cab, available for hire. They routinely defend murderers, child abusers, and every other sort of lowlife.
I can't see wheres the hypocrisy.

[Jackdaw33]

When I was studying law it was called the 'cab rank' rule.You could not pick or choose but had to accept the next case allocated you. This is why the clerk of chambers became such a powerful figure, as he decided who got which case.

[anotheoldgit]

You are missing the point, he is a Labour Cabinet Minister, and in that position he was addressing his party's conference.

/// Lord Falconer spoke at his party’s conference last month about his pride that it was a Labour government that passed the Human Rights Act. ‘It’s protected the powerless,’ ///

Obviously he was only referring to the UK, but on principle he should have turned down any involvement in the Republic of Djibouti, with their appalling human rights record.

[THECORBYLOON]

Principles cannot come into the matter, as has been explained, he cannot refuse to be hired.

[Gromit]

He is a QC so as explained earlier he does not choose or have to like the clients he works for.
The corruption case does not involve any human rights abuses.
If we were to stop any involvement with any country with human rights abuses, then we would stop dealing with most of the world.

I tried to look up Djibouti's 'appalling' human rights record and didn't find much.
Human Rights Watch's page https://www.hrw.org/africa/djibouti contains mainly old stories. While their record is not spotless (neither is ours), they do not appear to be 'appalling'.

[mikey4444]

Nice try on behalf of the DM, to try and involve the Labour Party here, but failed methinks !

[Gromit]

It would be embarrassing if the British Government had any involvement with Djibouti considering how dreadful the Daily Mail (and AOG) says they are...

// Mark Simmons, the UK government's Minister for Africa has warned that Britain must not miss the opportunity to invest early in the rapidly-rising frontier market.

Speaking at the first ever UK-Djibouti trade and investment forum in London, Minister for Africa Mark Simmonds said: "It is my ambition to tie the UK and Djibouti together by creating significant economic and trade links between our two countries.

"Not just to drive economic development, economic growth, and sustainable job creation in Djibouti, but to help UK companies grow, expand, and deliver financial returns to assist with our own UK economic recovery as well."

The forum was attended by the small African state's president, finance minister, foreign affairs minister, and central bank governor, among other senior delegates from politics and business. //

[Quizmonster]

As ever, there's little point in revealing the truth to some people. As already pointed out above, the vilest of criminals is entitled to legal representation. Even Sandy's explanation regarding the fact that there's no effective difference between a QC and a cabbie as far as clients go failed to get through. Unbelievable!
Perhaps The Mail will now take up the case of just which torture-states Davy-Boy is selling naughty things to. (No, I'm not talking about pigs!)

[Bobsy]

Never mind -you right wingers still have your betters to worship.