Archive for April, 2009

Relaxing this evening after a productive day of campaigning in Harborough. This morning our Team Labour was joined by Labour Euro candidate for the East Midlands, David Morgan, in Oadby. We had a great time getting the message out about Labour’s achievements in Europe to-date and of the threat the BNP poses in the East Midlands in the event of a low turnout. This afternoon we moved on to Wigston where I experienced a very positive reception from local residents on issues from the budget to the National Health Service.

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Great news today that the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, has announced a review of councils’ powers to launch surveillance of citizens. The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act allows public authorities to, amongst other things, intercept phone calls and emails. The Act was originally introduced to lay down in legislation the circumstances in which councils, Department for Work and Pensions etc. could use covert techniques to monitor unwitting members of the public. To be fair, these techniques were already being deployed far and wide, so the principle of prescribing who had the authority to do so in the future was in itself a good idea. The problem has been that the Act has allowed public authorities to undertake surveillance of citizens with little need for justification and for relatively insignificant issues such as dog fouling.

Hopefully the review will conclude at the very least that the level of seniority of official allowed to authorise surveillance should be raised. Personally, I’m uncomfortable with any public authority beyond the police and intelligence services having these powers. I also believe that all surveillance should be subject to judicial oversight, so the least serious requests should be sanctioned by a magistrate.

The Home Office is consulting on this until July 10 http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/cons-2009-ripa

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The Court of Appeal held last week that two gay asylum seekers – one from Iran, the other from Cameroon – should be returned to their country of origin. The Court argued that the decision to grant refugee status to the men depended on the social context in which homosexuality was viewed in their home countries, with one of the judges stating that “a degree of respect for social norms and religious beliefs in other states was appropriate.” It was ruled that the men’s applications for asylum should be denied on the basis that they would not face persecution in Iran and Cameroon if they carried out their lives “with a tolerable level of discretion.”

Quite what those judges deem to be tolerable is unclear. Iran has a highly disturbing record on LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans) rights. As President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed there were “no homosexuals in Iran”, Human Rights Watch reported the execution of two more men for ‘homosexual conduct.’

This form of cultural relativism in our courts when determining asylum cases is outrageous; it is at best naive, at worst wilfully ignorant. That the United Kingdom should deem it acceptable for our LGBT brothers and sisters to face persecution daily and then to compound that insult with the admonishment that they should “be discreet” when rejecting their asylum claims is shameful. 

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I find Twitter an easy way to post my thoughts and ideas, ask questions and generally keep up-to-date with news and opinions.

You can follow my Twitter feed below at www.twitter.com/kevinmckeever

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Hello there. I’m Kevin McKeever and I’m Labour’s prospective parliamentary candidate for Harborough. That means that I’ll be the Labour candidate for the Harborough constituency at the next general election (which by law has to to take place by summer 2010).

My blog and website are currently under construction – and I imagine a constant state of evolution – but please have a look around, comment on the material and get in touch directly using any of the channels described.

Best wishes and Happy Easter.

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