BAE Saudi Bribery Allegations should be Relaunched and Constitutional Renewal Bill Withdrawn

Following todays damning High Court judgement of the Governments intervention to block the Serious Fraud Offices inquiry into alleged bribes by BAE to Saudi officials I have called upon Gordon Brown to re-launch the inquiry and to drop the Governments proposals in its recently published Constitutional Renewal Bill to give the Attorney Generals powers to prevent or halt prosecutions on grounds of national security without recourse to Parliament or the courts

This judgement is an absolutely damning indictment of the Governments interference in our legal system. Never again should a Government be allowed to prevent justice being upheld.”

We should congratulate the Campaign Against the Arms Trade CAAT and Corner House who brought this case to court. They have done us all a service in exposing the illegality of the Government's actions.

The explanatory notes to the Governments draft Constitutional Renewal Bill states that the Bill "enables the Attorney General to give a direction to a prosecutor that, in relation to an investigation of specified matters, no proceedings for an offence are to be instituted or a direction that proceedings for a specified offence against a specified person are not to be continued. ..........Such a direction may only be given if it is necessary for the purposes of safeguarding national security."

These are sweeping powers to be placed in the hands of an Attorney General appointed by the Prime Minister. You can imagine how they would be used if we were ever able to bring to court those Ministers and officials responsible for taking this country to war in Iraq. As well as covering up the alleged bribes and corruption surrounding the Saudi arms deal maybe that is what they are designed for.

Steve Sinnott and Greg Tucker: Socialists and Trade Unionists

Over the last week our movement has been dealt a real blow with the deaths of Steve Sinnott, General Secretary of the NUT, and Greg Tucker, longstanding Left RMT activist.

Steve was a straightforward, decent, committed trade unionist who was absolutely dedicated to education as a means of transforming society. He was a brilliant advocate not only on behalf of NUT members and the teaching profession but also on behalf of public services more generally. As part of his commitment to public services and his opposition to privatisation he ensured that the NUT was a founding member of the Public Services Not Private Profit Campaign, which I chair. Steve knew the meaning of solidarity and put his solidarity into practice by co-ordinating with other trade unions in a number of campaigns including the current pay campaign. He will be missed not just by the NUT but by the Labour and Trade Union movement as a whole and by so many of us who had the privilege of working with him. The best tribute we can give to Steve is to ensure that we give every support we can to his members in the forthcoming industrial struggle for decent pay. This one is for you Steve.

Greg Tucker was a superb example of selfless dedication to the causes of socialism and trade unionism. I have known Greg for nearly 30 years from the days he was a rank and file activist campaigning in support of the Labour Left on the GLC, through the ratecapping campaign and the miners strike and onto his excellent work representing the RMT. Greg was one of those comrades who was always there if you needed support no matter how difficult the issue and whatever flack we were coming under. He embodied the best of our movement, a thinking, extremely well read, and determined socialist. Because he was such an effective representative of RMT members he was an automatic target for management victimisation but he stood up courageously to everything thrown at him. Greg would not allow anything to stand in the way of serving his members and our movement. The real heroes and heroines of our movement are those that quietly without thought of reward devote their lives to our cause. Greg was one of those heroes whom I am immensely proud to have known.