Robert Buckland Weblog

Was delighted to hear of the announcement of more jobs at Honda Swindon today. As the proud owner of a CR-V, I can tell you that they make excellent cars. Their fuel economy is very good and their record on carbon emissions is improving all the time. Honda’s commitment to continuing research and development augurs [...]

After nearly eighty years, an old lady is being laid to rest next to her husband and near to the remains of the rest of her family. An unusual story already, but rendered all the more fascinating because the person in question is the dowager Tsarina of Russia, Marie Feodrovna, who died in Denmark in [...]

The BBC website is carrying a report from the Labour Conference at Manchester that reveals another retreat by the Government on ID Cards.  Here is an extract from the report:
“The costs of the identity cards scheme could be cut “quite substantially” by making more use of existing government databases, a minister has said.
Home Office [...]

38 today – twice 19 and half way to 76. For some reason, I seem to recall what the weather was like on birthdays long gone by. It has usually been extremely clement. Warm Septembers are therefore not new, but they seem to be more frequent (good old global warming!) My first real memory is [...]

Its never great to be on the receiving end of modern heckling – I don’t know a speaker or politician who genuinely enjoys it nowadays. In times long gone by, Lloyd George and Aneurin Bevan were expert at rebutting hecklers by using wit, but they operated when public meetings attracted large numbers of what would [...]

Part One of an occasional series in which Robert examines a particular statutory connundrum caused by over-hasty government and poor draftsmanship. This week, we look at the Identity Cards Act 2006.
“Apart from my fundamental objections to this appalling piece of legislation, the new Act immediately threw up a lacuna that has already been exploited by [...]