This morning on my LBC Sunday morning show (only two of those left – sob) I interviewed Jo Shaw. Who? I hear you cry. Well until this morning she was LibDem parliamentary candidate for Holborn & St Pancras. This evening she isn’t. She isn’t even a party member any longer.
You see Jo Shaw has had the courage to stick up for her principles. She has run a LibDem campaign designed to persuade their MPs to vote against secret courts. It must have been galling for her to discover that only seven LibDem MPs had the courage of her principles. So this morning she quit her party in disgust, and she did it with style during a speech to her party’s Spring conference.
I remain profoundly uncomfortable with the idea of secret courts. The concept seems to go against the very idea of open and transparent British justice. Secret courts seem to be to be the property of dictators and despots. What is it about politicians that the most devoted civil libertarians in opposition, seem to be quite happy to impose the most draconianly authoritarian of measures when in government? As David Davis said earlier…
Clegg’s position on secret courts is about most unprincipled thing I have ever seen. Gladstone must be spinning in his grave
Quite. So when I interviewed Jo Shaw I was rather sorry for her. Years of campaigning for her party have been for nothing. It took some guts to do what she did today. And she should be proud of herself.
UPDATE: Caron Lindsay has a good take on Jo Shaw’s resignation HERE
