Justice & Law Quote by William Hague

Hague’s line is a neat piece of parliamentary jujitsu: it doesn’t just question a proposal, it questions the motive behind proposing it. By pairing “watertight” with “press release,” he turns legislative drafting into a morality play about seriousness versus theatre. “Watertight” evokes engineering, responsibility, consequences that have to hold under pressure. “Press release law” is built to leak on purpose: it’s porous by design, optimized for optics, not outcomes.

The rhetorical trick is the forced choice. No minister wants to defend the second option, so Hague rigs the frame: either you’re competent and sober, or you’re chasing a news cycle. That’s the subtextual accusation - not merely that the law is flawed, but that it’s performative governance, constructed to manufacture the appearance of action. In an era when “tough on crime” posturing and rapid-response politics became a reliable currency, “catch the headlines” is shorthand for a political economy where attention is treated as achievement.

There’s also a civil-liberties sting tucked inside “catch the guilty.” Hague implies that sloppy, headline-friendly laws don’t just fail; they misfire, sweeping up the wrong people while letting truly culpable actors slip through gaps created by rushed drafting or vague definitions. So the line flatters the public’s desire for justice while warning that moral panic can be legislated into injustice.

It works because it’s legible to anyone who’s watched politics mistake announcement for delivery - and because it makes competence sound like a moral stance, not a technocratic preference.