Michael Gove supported the death penalty. Now he’s minister for justice

The Tory minister wrote in 1998 that it was wrong to abolish hanging

 

Newly appointed justice secretary Michael Gove wrote an article supporting the death penalty in 1998, saying it was wrong to abolish hanging for convicted criminals.

The former Tory education secretary and chief whip’s article for the Times, where he was a journalist, was reported by the Telegraph on Sunday after his new role was revealed.

Mr Gove will be in charge of scrapping the Human Rights Act as well as running Britain’s prisons.

His piece argued a fair trial with the death penalty was more just than prison sentences set by the home office and imposed by judges.

The Times reports:

“Mr Gove wrote in 1998 that Britain was wrong to abolish hanging in the 1960s.

Banning the noose had ‘led to a corruption of our criminal justice system, the erosion of all our freedoms and has made the punishment of the innocent more likely’ as it came with the home secretary being given the power to impose wholesale tariffs, he said.

He has not repeated his stance since.

The Telegraph reports Mr Gove also wrote:

Hanging may seem barbarous, but the greater barbarity lies in the slow abandonment of our common law traditions. Were I ever alone in the dock I would not want to be arraigned before our flawed tribunals, knowing my freedom could be forfeit as a result of political pressures. I would prefer a fair trial, under the shadow of the noose.”

The incoming Tory government has pledged to replace the Human Rights Act, which enshrined the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law in 2000, which a British bill of rights.

The Act was passed under the Labour government of Tony Blair in the same year Mr Gove wrote his article about hanging.

Mr Gove recently wrote a piece in the Spectator about the importance of Christianity in the UK.

Adam Barnett is a staff writer at Left Foot Forward. Follow MediaWatch on Twitter

 

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61 Responses to “Michael Gove supported the death penalty. Now he’s minister for justice”

  1. damon

    Yours is an opinion. Like mine. They’re both as valid as each other.
    I don’t see the life of some sadistic serial killer to be particularly worthy.
    They are just a human being and if they have completely gone against the society in such an antisocial way, in theory I don’t see the problem with bumping them off.
    It’s only ”our” reaction that makes it such a big deal.
    When I was in Malaysia a few years ago, there was a mural painted on the outside wall of the old Kuala Lumpur prison which stated that drug traffickers faced the death penalty. It was on a busy road and was so old, the paint was fading and peeling. In Europe it would have been defaced as soon as it was put up, but there, thousands of people walked past it every day and left it alone.
    Because their culture can handle the idea of killing drug traffickers.
    I don’t agree with that myself btw, but could respect their point of view.
    To them, having a heroin problem in Malaysia would be a bigger evil.
    Fair enough.

  2. Leon Wolfeson

    Kill you, say, the state should have the power to kill.
    Never mind we know that the state kills innocents.
    Which is murder.

    It’s not “cultural”, it’s being pro-murder, putting a low value on life. As you make wild claims about the Europeans magically being pro-vandalism.

    If you hate Europe so much, stay home. And of course it’s not JUST drug traffickers you’d kill…no…your far right has far more expansive aims.

  3. Faerieson

    … and if there’s a miscarriage of justice?
    Whoops, sorry? I don’t think that would really suffice.

    And, on the second point, where we differ? I’m happy to be the one who aspires to a better society, rather than the vengeful one.

  4. oblivia

    Malaysians will get spanked if they deface the mural. Literally. They have corporal punishment. They make you put on a protective suit with just your buttocks exposed, then whack you repeatedly with a rattan cane. The cuts are deep. It’s not just a bit of redness. Your arse is a shredded bloody mess, twitching uncontrollably after the first few strokes.

    I would hate to live in a country that does that to people. But I guess the Malaysians are mature enough to handle it.

  5. damon

    I’ve heard of that spanking. It’s pretty harsh, but I spent a couple of months in Malaysia a few years ago and I thought that the people were very nice.
    Meanwhile, where I live, we have this kind of unchecked behaviour going on all the time.

    ”Croydon stabbing: Three teenagers knifed near station after fight spills out of McDonald’s”
    http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/croydon-stabbing-two-teenagers-knifed-near-station-in-south-london-street-10242137.html

    Maybe caning their arses would be the right thing to do. They only get sent to places like Feltham young offenders prison where they continue with their violent gang culture. The Malaysians would sort them out and make them fear a bit.

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