Geoff Hoon is very cross with the media, it appears.  He believes it is partly to blame for the political disengagement of the electorate.  The BBC reports him as saying, 

"There is not a media in the developed Western world that is as dismissive or as aggressive or as intrusive as ours." 

He added:

"Increasingly politicians don't trust the media to provide a fair account of what we do."

and,

"The biggest spinners in our society are journalists. You only have to look at any day's newspapers to see that.... From the experience of dealing with a lot of specialists, the specialists are by far the worst."

Oh dear, he is not serious is he?  I think a reality check is well overdue.

I am going to enjoy reading the blogger and press responses to this latest piece of complete nonsense from Mr Hoon.

We have known that it was coming for some time.  Pronouncements about "having to do something about the problem" have been given prominence by both press and television in recent months.  Now it is confirmed that,

"Ministers [are] today publishing proposals to boost the number of people convicted of rape."

Legislation will no doubt quickly follow, after a brief period of "consultation". The statistics quoted by the Government "proving" the need for new measures, mislead more than inform.[1]  The whole edifice constructed by the Government is built upon sand.  Sooner or later, it must surely fall.

The problem with proposals of this nature is that any opposition or criticism is always presented as being "pro-criminal" or "soft on crime" even though the issue is really one of ensuring that whilst presenting all available, probative evidence before the jury, a defendant still has a fair trial.

At one moment we are being told to be more careful when weighing expert evidence. Indeed, a recent, disturbing piece of research somewhere suggested that experts tended to try to support the case of the party on behalf of whom they were instructed. The next we hear, psychologists are going to called routinely to help us (the jury) understand the "irrational reasons" why we have taken to not believing a complainant and why we should give his or her inconsistent evidence "the benefit of the doubt".  One presumes that the Defence will be allowed to vigorously cross-examine these experts, or even call their own to refute the generalised, inappropriate or even silly opinions professed.

We are told,

" The proportion of rape allegations which lead to someone being punished has sunk to an all-time low, despite long-running Government efforts to boost results."

Juries are not so stupid as the Government wants to believe.  It is a myth that juries are institutionally biased against rape victims. Juries will continue to acquit defendants so long as there is any doubt in their minds as to the strength of the Crown's case.  If they perceive the law is being twisted to secure a conviction for instance, by way of psychologists seeking to persuade them that if they are minded not to believe the complainant, that judgment on their part is perverse, they will not be cowed.  Juries will continue to do the right thing, no matter how hard the Government tries to load the trial system against the defendant.[2]