discussion
the suggested consultation programme, outlined in paragraphs 7 to 9 below taking account of
the political difficulties identified in paragraph 11.
Proposed Consultation Programme
6
Although attempts have been made to write the draft discussion paper in plain English the LAPG was minded that any discussion of interim declarations against the Crown necessarily will involve complex legal issues and concepts that may not be easily understood by non-lawyers. The LAPG proposed that the discussion paper initially be sent only to the persons and groups named in Annex B, all of whom (except for OMELCO members) have a legal background. The reasons for initially limiting the circulation in this way are as follows :-
(a) It is anticipated that, because of the
subject matter of
of the draft discussion paper, lawyers will lead the public debate, if any,
on
the proposal.
Non-lawyers are likely το await the
views of lawyers opinion.
before expressing an
before
interim
(b) The proposal for
declarations may be misunderstood
by the general public as involving civil liberties issues (which it does not) causing them to react instinctively. The members of the LAPG were concerned that reasoned discussion of the proposal might be precluded if political pressure groups intentionally mis-construed the issues.
(c)
The Government should adopt a low-key approach to the consultation and in order to avoid
discussion processes elevating into a major controversy a proposal which is, in
reality, quite
minor and unlikely to
have much
practical significance to persons other than lawyers. At the present time few
people other
than lawyers will be the proposal but, if the
interested in
Government
seeks
widespread
and
be
has some
extensive consultation it might perceived that the proposal unapparent importance.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.