Government Above The Law

In February 2009, Pinknews.co.uk was one of many media organisations carrying the story of a gay asylum seeker who was illegally beaten-up and forcibly deported by the Home Office immigration service; and that a High Court judge had ruled the Home Secretary must "use her best endeavours" to bring him back.

This kind of story always fizzles out without any follow-up. Six months later Google finds no further news on the Home Secretary's success or failure. I don't believe that Jacqui Smith expended any effort whatsoever to bring back this asylum seeker, nor that she had any intention of attempting to do so. We see it in this article:

We see it in this article:

A UK Border Agency spokesperson told PinkNews.co.uk:
"We are disappointed by the High Court's decision.
"When somebody has been found to have no right to stay in the UK we expect them to leave voluntarily and if necessary will enforce their removal.
"It is important that individuals who have no right to be here are removed as part of robust immigration system.
"We are fully investigating what happened in this case.”

Translation: the court got it wrong and we'll ignore it. "We are fully investigating what happened" expresses no intention to carry out the court's demand.

What we absolutely need in such cases, is:

1. Courts who give such judgements to further require the government to come back after a short period of time to show their success or account for their lack of it.
2. A media that keeps this kind of story in the news, because bringing it to our attention so we say "shock, horror" will not make any particular change to the way government behaves.

If not, the government (and 9 times out of 10 that means the Home Office) will continue to operate with contempt for the judiciary, effectively above the law.