EU Arrest Warrant Tories Observer Panic

Tory hostility to EU extradition law 'risks new Costa del Crime' | Politics | The Observer
The Observer stoops to tabloid tactics in its attempts to find something with which to attack the Tories.

The Tories are to consider pulling out of the EU's fast-track extradition scheme, which helped bring failed London bomber Hussain Osman to justice, as part of their battle to resist further transfer of sovereignty to Brussels.

Such a move would please the party's Eurosceptics, after David Cameron denied them a referendum on the Lisbon treaty last week, but alarm police chiefs and law enforcement agencies, who believe the European arrest warrant is vital to tackling domestic and cross-border crime.

Anything that is referred to as 'fast-tracking' by the media is always a load of bollocks, in the same way that describing the Lisbon Treaty as being intended to 'streamline' the EU is bollocks.

The article also omits to look at the argument from the other side, ie that other EU countries have different legal systems in which some things are illegal there that aren't crimes in the UK. There have already been cases of British nationals having to be extradited to foreign countries under the warrant when they would have been safe under British law.

It's also disgraceful and rather sad that a paper like the Observer can make the following statement without for one moment considering the momentous implications:

But from the moment Lisbon comes into force, justice and home affairs matters will gradually be brought under full EU control over a five-year period. Experts say that, because amendments will soon be needed to the way the warrant operates, it will probably be switched to full EU control long before 2014.

Britian may or may not have an 'opt-in', but since the EU are not to be trusted and have given themselves the right to change the rules at any time under the self-amending Lisbon Constitution, that may not last.

The police (or rather ACPO) are really keen, as you'd expect, loving the possibility of more power:

Both the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) and the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) have welcomed the role the arrest warrant has played in helping to track down criminals who have fled abroad. The Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesman, Edward Davey, accused the Tories of putting their ideological opposition to the EU above the pursuit of criminals and terrorists.

"Anyone who has looked at the facts knows that, before the arrest warrant, co-operation with many EU countries on catching these serious criminals was at best patchy, at worst impossible. British police simply couldn't rely on Interpol or any bilateral arrangements to deliver justice, even when the offences were as serious as murder, rape or child abuse, Davey said.

They're as deluded as all the rest if they think that the very people upon whom they couldn't rely are going to do any better with extra legislation and administration.

As for Alan Johnson, he's a traitorous little shit-stain.

(I note that Toby Helm is one of the co-writers of this piece. Interesting, he has remained utterly silent about the role of the EU in the chaos at Royal Mail when he's written about that. Couldn't be that he's not being objective, could it?)