Spoking Scott.(Lord Justice Sir Richard Scott; dearth of non-politicized UK independent commissions)(Column)

Economist (US), The, February, 1996

The John Major government's trashing of Scott's inquiry on UK arms sales to Iraq will make it harder to find bold and apolitical independent commissioners in the future. This is bad for government oversight and reform, no matter which party is in power.

MEMO to ministers: beware the judge who rides a bike. If Whitehall had had its wits about it in November 1992 when John Major set up Sir Richard Scott's inquiry into the sale of arms to Iraq, alarm bells would have rung at the notion of entrusting it to a pedalling man.

What Mr Major needed was the right kind of judge: that is to say, one who commutes between the Garrick Club and the law courts in a comfy limousine, and thinks ordinary people are those you meet in the crush bar of the Royal Opera House. A word...

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