Probably the second most
right wing Home Secretary Britain has ever known; only
Michael Howard comes out ahead, and he was an unmistakeable
bigot whose disdain for
civil liberties was second to none. After coming into power as
New Labour's Home Secretary under
Tony Blair, Jack Straw proposed and promoted a wide range of
authoritarian legislation: Measures to 'fast track'
young offenders into
prison; an
Asylum Bill even more restrictive than that they had inherited from the
Tories, which had been widely denounced as racist in intention and effect but was loved by the
tabloid press;
curfews on children in many areas; a
Police Act which removes the need for judicial authority for
phone tapping and various other checks on
police intrusions; a
Terrorism Act which broadened the definition of '
terrorism' to include interference with an electronic system, causing serious damage to property or promoting any such '
terrorist' actions - by wearing a T-shirt or badge, perhaps; legislation to remove the right to
trial by jury for many defendants; and so on, and so on.
Jack Straw also refused to give an inch on the issue of cannabis prohibition in his time as Home Secretary, in spite of the massive shift of opinion against it, both among the public at large and in the press - even the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph declared that it was time for the law to change - and in spite of his son, William Straw being caught selling a draw to a Mirror Reporter, and his brother Ed Straw being named in at least one article as an enthusiastic pot-head who sold the occasional draw in his youth, thirty-odd years ago.
After the UK General Election 2001 Jack Straw was replaced as Home Secretary by David Blunkett, formerly Education Secretary, who many expect to be just as bad. Jack Straw is now Foreign Secretary.
Also: A Jacks draw, pronounced 'Jack Straw,' is the amount of draw you can get for a jacks.