There are Labour politicians who are more deserving of a pelting with rotten vegetables, eggs and other things than Ruth Kelly, the current Education Minister, but it was good to see an honourable British tradition being followed, yesterday.  The hoi-polloi, of which I am a member, do not possess the slick, quick-witted oral skills of our political masters so it is only right that we be allowed to express our disapproval by way of a well aimed tomato or egg in the direction of a Minister of the Crown.[1]

There is a price to pay for the privilege of lobbing such missiles. Thus the miscreant in this instance, a Mike Downs, should be dragged before the local Beak, given a fine, ordered to pay for Ms Kelly’s dry cleaning and admonished.[2]  I note however, that he was arrested for witness intimidation.[3]The significance is that this offence is one deemed to be against Justice itself and is very serious. Magistrates will usually refuse jurisdiction and commit the case for hearing to the Crown Court.  A custodial sentence is almost inevitable.  This smacks of overkill.

During the course of the past thirty years or so criminal offences have been drawn increasingly widely for the purpose of ensuring that the guilty do not go free, but often the effect is that simply looking them up in Archbold[4] commits the offence. We all know what constitutes witness intimidation (or revenge).  It was not what happened on Monday.