Letters between the Prince of Wales and the British government will remain secret after the Attorney General intervened to block a court order mandating their release.

Last month, a panel of judges ruled that seven government departments had to disclose correspondence they had received from Prince Charles. But Section 53 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 gives ministers a veto over such decisions. In a ten-page document that accompanied his decision , Dominic Grieve MP said that he was taking action to protect the political neutrality of the Crown.

One of the fundamental principles of Britain’s constitutional monarchy is that the sovereign must be politically neutral. By longstanding convention, the Queen only acts on the advice of the government of the day. However, she must be kept informed about the business of government, and she is free to share her views privately with ministers. The need to preserve the Crown’s neutrality is seen as so important that communications between the royal family and the government are treated as strictly confidential, although the Freedom of Information Act 2000 originally allowed certain documents to be disclosed if it was deemed to be in the public interest.

Throughout her sixty-year reign, Queen Elizabeth II has shown herself to be a model of political circumspection. She does not give interviews, and on the few occasions when she does not speak on ministerial advice, her remarks are scrupulously apolitical. There was a brief furor in 1986 when the Sunday Times claimed that some of Margaret Thatcher’s policies were causing the Queen ‘dismay,’ but the assertion was swiftly rubbished by the Palace.

Prince Charles, on the other hand, has gained a reputation for being rather more outspoken than his mother. He has not shied away from public comment on topics such as architecture and organic farming, and he is known to share his views with ministers from time to time. While his critics claim that he is exerting undue influence on the government, his defenders argue that, as the future king, he is entitled to discuss his views with ministers.

The present tussle started back in 2005 when Rob Evans, a journalist from the left-leaning Guardian newspaper, sought to use the Freedom of Information Act to force the disclosure of Prince Charles’ correspondence with several government departments. His request was opposed by the government, and he ended up having to fight it all the way to the Upper Tribunal of the Administrative Appeals Chamber.

Last month, the Tribunal ruled that the disclosure of the documents was in the public interest. In their ruling, the judges sought to draw a distinction between correspondence that allows Prince Charles to prepare himself for kingship and correspondence that advocates certain positions. While the former should remain confidential, the latter could be disclosed to the public.

But the Attorney General disagreed. “In my view, it is of very considerable practical benefit to the Prince of Wales’ preparations for kingship that he should engage in correspondence and engage in dialogue with ministers about matters falling within the business of their departments, because such correspondence will assist him in fulfilling his duties…as king,” Grieve said.

Grieve also pointed out that, although the letters could be “frank,” they did not cross the lines of constitutional propriety. But at the same time, their disclosure could make it harder for people to accept his political neutrality when he becomes king.

“The ability of the monarch to engage with the government of the day, whatever its political colour, and maintain political neutrality is a cornerstone of the UK’s constitutional framework,” Grieve concluded.

Rob Evans, the journalist who originally asked for the letters to be disclosed, condemned the Attorney General’s decision, claiming that “the public has a right to see these letters” in order to gauge Prince Charles’ influence on government policy.

The anti-monarchy group Republic chimed in as well. “The Attorney General’s decision is all about protecting Charles and the Royal family from scrutiny, putting his demands above the rights of the British people,” said Graham Smith, the group’s chief executive.

“Dominic Grieve has made it clear today that no citizen should ever bother trying to find out what the royals are doing behind closed doors: the government will never let the light in.”

In the future, it will be impossible to use the Freedom of Information Act to sneak a peek at royal correspondence. Under changes to the law that took effect last year, the Queen, Prince Charles, and the Duke of Cambridge now enjoy a blanket exemption from the act.

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Washington, U.S.A. — Congressman Chaka Fattah (D-PA), the senior Democratic appropriator for the U.S. Department of Justice, issued the following statement:

“Attorney General Eric Holder and the Department of Justice have achieved a major victory today in the on-going effort to hold predatory home mortgage lenders accountable. And the battle to right the wrongs of this national disgrace will continue.

“The $175 million settlement with Wells Fargo, one of the nation’s largest lenders, is an indication that aggressive investigation can result in justice for those victimized by patterns of discrimination on the basis of race or national origin.

“While instances of severe racial profiling and discrimination in home mortgage lending, predatory practices, misleading paperwork and hard-sell for sub-prime mortgages extend back at least to 2004, serious investigation of these allegations didn’t begin until after the Obama Administration took office in 2009.

“The Department of Justice under General Holder has confronted the mortgage foreclosure atrocity with every resource available – negotiating settlements with banks, investigating deceptive practices, and more.

“I have been urging the Department of Justice since 2009 to step up the pace of investigations, and led the fight in the House Appropriations Committee for the extra resources that have helped fund these probes.

“In addition, as a legislator who has won enactment for programs to assist distressed homeowners on the state and national level going back to the 1980s in Pennsylvania, I’m gratified that today’s beneficiaries include about 1,030 African-American homebuyers in the Philadelphia area who may have been victims of illegal predatory lending.

“And knowing General Holder as a man of character and action, I take heart that today’s settlement is simply the latest step by the professionals of the Department of Justice to protect and deliver redress for millions of preyed-upon, discriminated-against homeowners.”

Congressman Fattah is author of the Pennsylvania Homeowners Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program which has helped save over 44,000 homes from foreclosure by providing loans to homeowners who lost their jobs or income through no fault of their own.

He delivered programs including the $1 billion national Emergency Homeowners’ Loan Program which has saved homes for laid-off homeowners coast to coast. Fattah is the senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and related agencies.

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Washington, U.S.A - The Conservative electoral wave of 2010 is alive and well and headed toward the Senate. Groups representing all aspects of the movement declare that the 2012 Conservative takeover that began in Indiana when Richard Mourdock ousted 36 year-incumbent Richard Lugar, must continue in Nebraska this Tuesday.

Diverse conservative groups, Eagle Forum, Gun Owners of America, FRCAction and FreedomWorks are uniting behind State Treasurer Don Stenberg because of his proven record, having delivered on his promises to conservatives each of the four times he has been elected to statewide office.  The groups issued the following statements:

FRCAction PAC

“Don Stenberg is a known quantity, and he is known as a warrior for marriage and the unborn, having defended Nebraska’s partial birth abortion bill all the way to the Supreme Court. He is also a warrior on the fiscal front, as he fought to keep costs under control as Nebraska’s Attorney General and Treasurer.”

FreedomWorks

Stenberg has a record of standing strong against interventionist economic policies, such as cap-and-trade and ObamaCare. A critic of excessive government spending before it was fashionable; Stenberg decried Republican big-spending initiatives such as Medicare Part D, No Child Left Behind, and corporate bailouts.  We know we can count on him to take a stand for our economic freedom, even if it means standing against his own party.

Gun Owners of America

Gun Owners of America stands with Don Stenberg who is strong on all the issues, especially appointees and nominees that shape policy for generations.  He is the polar opposite of Jon Bruning, who wrote a letter supporting the nomination of Attorney General Eric Holder, and continues, unapologetically to stand by his support for Eric Holder despite many calls to renounce it.

Even in the face of Congressman Darrell Issa’s impending Contempt of Congress charges Bruning still wants to go along to get along.  This is exactly what is wrong with our party and Establishment candidates like Dick Lugar, who recently was defeated by another staunch conservative.

Eagle Forum

“With the possibility of two to three vacancies on the Supreme Court and hundreds of other federal benches over the next four years, we must elect conservatives with the backbone to stand up against nominees who don’t share our values. Don Stenberg is the only candidate in this race that we know will take such a stand.”

Stenberg is also endorsed by Kentucky Senator Rand Paul and Utah Senator Mike Lee, both of whom were elected in the 2010 conservative wave, as well as Senator Jim DeMint’s Senate Conservative Fund and the pro-business Club for Growth.

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Department of Revenue has extended the deadline by which remote sellers with physical presence in Pennsylvania must become licensed and begin collecting sales tax. These steps now must be completed by Sept. 1.

“We heard from a number of e-commerce businesses that companies are willing to comply with their Pennsylvania sales tax obligations, but our original Feb. 1 compliance deadline is impractical from operational and technical standpoints,” said Revenue Secretary Dan Meuser. “In the interest of being reasonable and respecting the difficulty of tailoring sales tax software to Pennsylvania’s complicated sales tax rules, we believe extending the compliance deadline is the fair thing to do.”

Meuser noted the Sept. 1 compliance deadline comes well before the next holiday sales season, reflecting an effort to enforce uniform sales tax collection and foster fair competition among e-commerce and brick-and-mortar businesses in advance of the busiest retail season of the year.

“This is the only deadline extension that will be offered,” Meuser clarified.  “Businesses with Pennsylvania nexus that do not become registered and begin collecting Pennsylvania sales tax by Sept. 1 will face a variety of escalating enforcement options over time, including assessment, audit, lien or referral to a collection agency or the Office of Attorney General.

“It’s simply a matter of fairness under the existing law, and it’s essential that both e-commerce retailers with nexus and brick-and-mortar stores in Pennsylvania, many of which are small businesses employing thousands of Pennsylvanians with retail jobs, are treated equally.”

This deadline extension follows a Tax Bulletin issued Dec. 1, 2011, which explains existing sales tax nexus law for remote sellers, clarifying the law and the department’s authority to require e-commerce and other out-of-state sellers with physical presence in Pennsylvania to collect sales tax.

Sales and Use Tax Bulletin 2011-01 relies on in-state activity to establish nexus, as required by the U.S. Constitution, and provides examples of in-state activity sufficient to require sales tax registration and collection.

In cases where companies with nexus blatantly disregard the Tax Bulletin and their obligations to begin collecting sales tax, the department has the statutory authority to look back at least three years for audit and assessment purposes.

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