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Peter Black and South Wales West Liberal DemocratsRepresenting Aberavon, Bridgend, Gower, Neath, Ogmore, Port Talbot, and Swansea |
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Local Labour MPs 'dancing to Bush's tune' says AM
October 26, 2006 11:49 AM
The Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member for South Wales West, Peter Black, has condemned the Labour MPs for Swansea West, Swansea East, Gower, Neath, Aberavon, Bridgend and Ogmore for failing to protect Britons from "fast track" extradition to the United States last Tuesday.
The proposed amendments to the Police and Justice Bill would have required the United States to put forward a prima facie case to support extradition requests, and judges could insist that trials were heard in Britain. British courts would have been able to refuse the extradition of UK citizens accused of committing offences on British soil but which have repercussions in the US. The amendment was lost by 293 votes to 224.
The vote attracted wide interest in the wake of the recent well-publicised case in which the NatWest Three were extradited to the States earlier this year. However, despite an inquest finding that ITN journalist, Terry Lloyd, was unlawfully killed by American soldiers in Southern Iraq, Britain does not have the same power to extradite those soldiers to stand trial for the crime.
"All seven of the Labour MPs for the South Wales West region obediently voted for this obvious unfairness to continue," said Mr. Black. "The Minister actually had the nerve to refer to the inequality of these arrangements as 'rough parity'. What an outrageous piece of spin. An arrangement which means that our citizens can be 'fast-tracked' to the United States with no proper hearing in our courts is rough justice, not rough parity."
"When such disparate groups as the Liberal Democrats, Liberty, the Conservative Party, the CBI, and the Institute of Directors are saying that the government have got something wrong, I would expect that even a party as arrogant and headstrong as the British Labour Party would take note. Instead they have decided, as did our local Labour MPs, that it would be better to be dancing to Bush's tune."
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