UK-US Extradition Treaty

My right hon. Friend makes a good pint. That brings me to the consideration—finally, I hope, as I do not want to take up too much time—of the issue of forums. The second issue that we must consider, which was considered in the other place yesterday, is that we chose in the 2003 Act, bizarrely, to get rid of the protection that existed in article 7(1) of the 1957 convention on extradition, which allowed an extradition to be prevented if the person was being sent to an inappropriate forum for the trial. As I did not participate in detailed consideration of the 2003 Act, I am unclear as to why the Government decided not to include that safeguard in the Act generally. Every other country has that safeguard. The Irish, who regard themselves as close partners and friends of the United States, and who have an extradition arrangement, have a forum clause in their treaty, which enables the question of the appropriate forum to be considered. One reason why so much public disquiet has been expressed about the case of Mr. Mulgrew, Mr. Bermingham and Mr. Darby is that they are in this country, the victim, NatWest, is in this country, and a trial could properly take place in this country without the onerous burden of extradition. However, they have been deprived of that opportunity—it has only been taken as a Human Rights Act point, which is inadequate. I have yet to hear from the Solicitor-General why the Government have not adopted that protection, which, in my understanding, applies across virtually every other European country. That makes a considerable difference. Were we to introduce that protection, along with reciprocity with the United States, the Solicitor-General would find that the public disquiet that has arisen, which, as I said, is genuine, would be allayed. The Government have a responsibility for good governance. One of the features of good governance—picking up the point made by my right hon. Friend the Member for Wokingham (Mr. Redwood)—is the paternal relationship between the state and its citizens. That is not to say that the state should not give up its citizens for trial elsewhere when there is clear evidence that they should be tried and it is in the public interest. But the state should not appear to be cavalier with their rights. One of the things about the Government that makes me anxious, which is a wider issue than the UK-US extradition treaty and runs through a host of pieces of legislation that have an authoritarian tinge that undermines civil liberties in this country, is that they combine an extraordinary internationalism and an attitude that state boundaries and borders are rather archaic with a reluctance to stand up for their own. That is troubling, as it undermines public confidence in the state, and will ultimately, and corrosively, undermine public confidence in the criminal justice system.