So, the Home Information Pack regime is now to be introduced for all homes and much earlier than had been expected.  As far as can be discerned all of the current, main players in the industry including Estate Agents, Surveyors and even Solicitors (whose governing body, The Law Society, has done so much to make the Government's HIPs scheme work) continue to have grave reservations as to the efficacy of the scheme.

According to The Times this morning,

"Earlier this week Ruth Kelly met representatives of the Home Information Pack industry, which warned the Communities Secretary that she faces a multi-billion claim if she scraps the scheme."

Doesn't that say it all.

Home pack extension sparks fears of slump

Let me be the first to admit that I was wrong.  After the Law Society won the greater part of the legal argument last week in its judicial review case against the Government's quango, the Legal Services Commission (LSC), I had expected there to be much wailing and gnashing of teeth on the part of the media against the "reactionary, anti-progressive and over-paid" legal profession. But no, this has not happened. It seems the Legal Services Commission claims it won the case.  Says Carolyn Regan, Chief Executive of the Commission:

"I am obviously pleased that the Court has confirmed that it is lawful for the Legal Services Commission to amend the unified contract to introduce the new civil legal aid fee schemes from October 2007."

In fact the matter of fee schemes was an inconsequential legal side issue in the case.  As I understood matters, having been obliged to waste a part of my life reading legal aid materials, including the old legal aid contract and new Unified Contract, the Legal Services Commission (and its previous incarnation, the Legal Aid Board) had always possessed the means, one way or another, to introduce fee schemes, including fixed fees.  It had done so before - firstly by way of fixed fees for criminal work in the Magistrates' Court and later in 2001 for Counsel instructed in family cases, the so-called graduated fees scheme.  The main thrust of the Law Society's case, which was accepted by the Judge, was that some of the powers claimed by the Legal Services Commission to unilaterally amend the new Unified Contract were incompatible with current Law.

And yet Government seeks to convince us that the Age of Spin is over.  Perhaps it should tell its agencies.

The Law Society successfully challenges the Legal Services Commission

“Rather like that harbinger cat recently discovered in an American nursing home for the elderly (the creature’s habit being to curl up on the beds of those residents who are not far from their final hour) a group of right-wingers, reactionaries and xenophobes styling themselves as Tory columnists has been acting as a false friend to the party, drawn towards everything that is morbid within its body politic, sucking it towards its grave. Who knows (and I doubt) whether the voters take much notice, but the parliamentary Conservative Party does.”

Matthew Parris - The Times

Once again, Mr Parris tells it as it is.

So, today in the High Court Mr Justice Beatson has upheld The Law Society's challenge against the Legal Services Commission (LSC) for having imposed unilaterally upon legal aid practitioners the new (and grossly one-sided) "Unified Contract".  Says the Law Society,

"The judge said that the LSC has breached Public Contracts Regulations 2006 and European Law in its reform of legal aid. Most significantly, the judge said that changes to the contract should not be made if they would, 'alter the economic balance of the contract to the disadvantage of those who have entered into the Unified Contract or to the disadvantage of some of them.'  The judge also noted that any proposed changes should be restricted to those envisaged by the initial White Paper. It is not clear at this stage how this will affect the LSC's proposals on fees and the Judge has granted the Law Society permission to appeal on the basis of public interest on this point…"

Well, this is what happens when you try to introduce ill conceived, half-baked reforms at breakneck speed.  It will be interesting to see the Government and the majority of the mainstream media spin this into a victory by lawyers (including the Judge) against the common interest.

A Home Information Pack, anyone?

"If services are cut as a result of the legal aid reforms I don't think I'm being unduly cynical in expecting the vast majority of media comment to accuse overpaid lawyers of letting down the public because the Government has stopped the gravy train."

Kit O' Brien

It is worth fighting to save the least loved branch of the welfare state - Jonathan Freedland

“People throw the charge of “racist” around far too freely today and fail to separate inconsequential prejudice from all-consuming intolerance,”

writes Nick Cohen in his book, What’s Left? How Liberals lost their way.

Likewise for instance, charges such as “sexist” and “homophobe” are too freely made, most usually as a first resort by the feeble-minded in support of a lame argument.

"A paedophile who raped a ten-year-old girl will be free in just four months after a judge said his young victim had dressed provocatively. Window cleaner Keith Fenn, 24, could have been jailed for life after twice attacking the girl in a riverside park,"

screams The Daily Mail this morning.  Mr Fenn it transpires, had pleaded guilty to two counts of rape involving a ten year old girl.   His co defendant Darren Wright, who had encouraged the commission of the offences, received a prison sentence of nine months after pleaded guilty to inciting the girl to engage in sex acts.  Paedophile, rape and attack are very emotive words.  One can imagine that even at this moment some dark shadow in government will be moved to draw plans to impose obligatory life-sentences for anyone convicted of rape involving a child under the age of sixteen years.  No doubt a stiffening of the law in such a manner would please Dr Michele Elliott of Kidscape who is reported by The Daily Mail as saying,

 "This sentencing is beyond pathetic, it is utterly derisory. For the judge to say that the way she was dressed in any way excuses a 24-year-old man having sex with her is disgraceful and ridiculous."

The NSPCC is reported to have added its two-pennies' worth,

"There's no excuse for having sex with a ten-year-old, no matter how she dresses."

Even the most cursory examination of the facts related by The Daily Mail  (and better still the original Oxford Mail report) show why the Judge was entitled, indeed obliged by justice to impose a short, rather than long, term of imprisonment. The defendants thought that the girl was sixteen years old.  It appears that the Crown accepted that presumption as being not unreasonable.  Mr Fenn was guilty of rape because as a ten year old, the Law deems the young girl involved as not being able to consent to sexual activity, thus notwithstanding that her involvement was consensual and not forced (in the true sense of the word) upon her, it was illegal.  The defendants did not realise that they were committing criminal offences. Nevertheless, that illegality has resulted in the defendants being sentenced to terms of imprisonment.  Harsher sentences would have been unfair.  His Honour Judge Julian Hall did justice to the case.

Oxford Mail - Judge claims paedophile victim 'dressed provocatively' - George Gaynor

Judge's mercy for the man who raped 'provocatively dressed' girl of ten

It is self evident that in matters appertaining to law and order, the Government has tended to dance (or rather, knee jerk) to the tune of the media.  It is frequently overlooked however, that a more insidious influence upon Government has been exerted by favoured focus and pressure groups.  Using their privileged access to Government, these groups have been able to set agendas and outmanoeuvre opponents. Presented with cogent argument and evidence refuting the efficacy of following a particular course of action, the Government chooses its moment and then ploughs on regardless. The Government’s desire to amend the law so as to ensure rape convictions are more easily secured is a classic example. Today, Clare Dyer, legal editor of The Guardian reports,

“The government is to press ahead with plans to reform the rape laws in an attempt to increase the low conviction rate, despite strong opposition from the judges who will have to put them into effect.”

The new devices that are thought will be effective include,

“a power for expert witnesses to give general evidence, not about the specific case, but about how rape victims generally behave, to dispel “myths” that might affect the jury's reactions and an automatic right to use the alleged victim's videotaped interview with the police in place of her main evidence at the trial.”

It is all going to end in tears.  Judges and advocates will all be painfully aware of their duty to ensure that the defendant has a fair trial.  Accordingly the worst excesses of the reforms will be mitigated.  Juries will suspect (rightly) that the legal system is bending over backwards to ensure a conviction and will react accordingly.  Thus the conviction rate will continue to hover at the current rate (between 5% and 6%) and the whipping boys, the judges and barristers, will again be described as “ignorant” and “devious”, respectively.

What the “reformers” fail to understand, is that action and reaction are equal and opposite.  The more they weight the system against the defendant, the more likely it is that the jury will smell a fit up and throw the case out.  Pressure groups have a skewed view of the world and can be forgiven their myopia, but Government must be more rational and must legislate on principle and compelling evidence alone.

Ministers defy judges on rape law reforms

Lovesick lesbian cried rape to frame an innocent

She cried rape, he must be guilty, right?

Barristers oppose 'dangerous' plans to reform rape law

Professor Jennifer Temkin rides again: devious barristers and ignorant judges

Government to load dice even further against fair trial

More nonsense from this partial New Labour Government

Richard Brooks and Dipesh Gadher report today in The Sunday Times that an official report commissioned by the BBC will confirm that amongst other things the Corporation is partial in its treatment of single-issue politics such as climate change, poverty, race and religion.  The bias has extended across drama, comedy and entertainment, with the corporation pandering to politically motivated celebrities and trendy causes.

We have been here before, of course.  In January 2005 another report commissioned by the BBC came to the conclusion that the Corporation was unintentionally, but nevertheless too well disposed towards the European Union.  Another report commissioned for internal consumption alone (the “Balen Report”) is widely thought to have been critical of the BBC’s Middle East reporting, which is perceived in most quarters to be pro-Arab and unsympathetic towards Israel.

In the latest report it is acknowledged that,

“[there is] the danger of BBC programmes being undermined by the liberal culture of its staff, who need to challenge their own assumptions more,”

and,

“there is a tendency to ‘group think’ with too many staff inhabiting a shared space and comfort zone.”

So far, so good.  The real issue is that the BBC will not address the problem because it cannot.  Those people within the Corporation who should challenge the current “liberal” mindset do not have the critical mass to ensure that there is any real, significant change.  There are too few of them.  Their minority view is considered quaint, wrongheaded, dangerous or just downright bad and in consequence is ignored. The Sunday Times leader identifies the only course open to the BBC if it truly wishes to avoid being unnecessarily partial in its outlook.

“That the BBC should investigate itself is perhaps admirable, but only if it acts on the conclusions. The likelihood is that it will lament its shortcomings, pledge to do something and carry on much as before. Changing its cosy culture will take more than a report; some who have worked there say it would require a small neutron bomb. The BBC is a self-perpetuating liberal arts club. Recruitment is the key. It needs to employ more nonconformist journalists whose paper of choice is not The Guardian.”

So will the BBC now seek to spread its net wider when recruiting staff?  Don’t hold your breath.

BBC report damns its ‘culture of bias’

Bias at the Beeb - official

The BBC: Soft Left, anti-American (and very pro-European Union)

Nobody mention the "Labour" word

How many Divisions has the BBC?

BBC wins Balen report battle

The Editors – Both Sides

BBC news coverage of the European Union - Independent Panel Report

Whilst only serious conspiracy theorists would allege something sinister about the building housing Hazel Blears' campaign offices mysteriously collapsing a day or so ago, The Guardian helpfully putting another spanner in the works of her deputy leader campaign, is something else.

You might have heard that Ms Blears had accepted recently a £10,000 campaign donation from a company specialising in employment law and related services, namely Peninsula Business Services Ltd.  This company “helps companies fight employment tribunal claims” splutters The Guardian with barely concealed rage. This donation has infuriated Labour MPs, we are told.  Kevan Jones, Labour MP for Durham North is reported as saying,

“It is absolutely disgraceful that Hazel Blears has taken money from a firm that boasts it can cut compensation claims from workers. She should give the money back and not use it as part of her campaign”

and for good measure Tom Watson, Labour MP for West Bromwich East, took the view that,

“It is up to trade unionists voting in the election to make their own judgment on Hazel Blears' lack of judgment.”

Just for the record, let us remind ourselves that neither Kevan Jones nor Tom Watson can be considered supporters of Hazel Blears, so their righteous indignation is a little hollow.  It is also right to point out that Peninsula Business Services Ltd is not the heinous monster that its detractors make out.  One would assume that believing in fair play and justice, Labour supporters would see it as only reasonable that when faced with a claimant employee backed by a Trade Union with all its resources and ready access to legal advice, the employer should also be similarly represented.  It is a matter of equality of arms.

Ms Blears’ own riposte to the criticism says all that need to be said,

“Peninsula is a reputable company, providing advice on health & safety and good employment systems to small organisations, helping them stay on the right side of the law. They are a Salford-based firm, employing over 400 people in Salford, and 700 in total. Their donation to the Hazel Blears for Deputy campaign has been declared to the Electoral Commission in an open and transparent way, alongside other donations, including £12,000 from the shopworkers' union Usdaw.”

So why all the stirring, who is behind it and why?

Blears criticised over campaign backers

Is someone trying to de-rail Hazel Blears’ deputy leadership campaign?

Hazel Blears' campaign to be Deputy Leader gains momentum

Our senior politicians might reflect how their headline catching pronouncements are interpreted abroad, as today’s article in Pravda about paedophiles and chemical castration shows.  One cannot help but suspect that something has been lost in translation.

Having discussed the purported success of chemical castration in Europe and some states in the USA, the Pravda article then continues incongruously about male pattern baldness:

“[Physical] castration prevents male pattern baldness if it is done before hair is lost, however, castration will not restore hair growth after hair has already been lost due to male pattern baldness...[and it] eliminates the risk of testicular cancer, and it may even reduce prostate cancer”

…nevertheless I’m minded to persevere with scalp massage and drinking cranberry juice, thank you very much.

Paedophiles will be castrated for their crimes in Britain

Joshua Rozenberg, Legal Editor of The Daily Telegraph, reports today of the response to the comments of Miss Barbara Hewson, a barrister, in the Bar Council's magazine Counsel regarding guidance issued to judges earlier this year by the Judicial Studies Board, which accepted the possibility that female judges, magistrates or tribunal members might wear the niqab, or veil, in Court.  Miss Hewson professed concern that the guidelines contemplated veiled judges and were “astonishing and subversive”, adding “the United Kingdom is not a sharia state.”

Responding, Fatim Kurji argued that,

“As for veiled judges and the suggestion that the “United Kingdom is not a sharia state”, this is what I call “the BNP argument”. It implies a woman who wears a niqab comes at the erosion of British values. Such an astonishingly offensive remark undermines the long-enduring libertarian values.”

I have always considered the question of female advocates or judges wearing a veil in Court as a non-issue, largely because so few would avail themselves of the opportunity.  From a practical point of view, the wearing of a veil by one party potentially limits the degree of interaction that would otherwise take place between judge and advocate.  Being able to see someone’s face greatly assists communication.  In Court, the quality of communication is frequently decisive. The wearing of a veil in Court would certainly be a significant departure from previously accepted practise.

Where I take issue with Miss Kurji is that Miss Hewson is perfectly entitled to make the points she has and by doing so has not presented “the BNP argument.”  It is not acceptable that anyone who challenges the orthodoxy of a minority group is accused routinely of prejudice or worse, branded as a bigot.

BNP jibe at lawyer who opposed veiled judges

So, the BBC reports today that David Phythian, a Councillor of the West Lancashire District Council, has been prohibited from attending football matches for three years and fined £250 by the Wigan and Leigh Magistrates' Court after pleaded guilty to using racially aggravated threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour towards Tottenham Hotspurs' Pascal Chimbonda, a black footballer, during the Wigan v. Spurs match that took place in April 2007.  The local Labour group at the Council has now suspended Mr Phythian.

The BBC report contained most of the salient facts, but I could not help but notice that one additional fact, which I should have expected from a BBC report, had not been included in the title emblazoned, "Racist abuse councillor suspended".  Of course, the word Tory was missing.  Wigan Today, the newspaper that broke the story on 1st June 2007, was not so timid.  However, it transpires that the problem faced by the BBC was that Mr Phythian was a Labour, not Conservative politician. Only by reading the BBC's full report could we deduce that he was not a Conservative.  Most people would have gleaned all they wanted to know from the first few lines of the report and assumed the rest.

The BBC is often coy concerning the political affiliation of an individual involved in "minor, local difficulties", save when it is a Conservative.  In the matter of local issues, political affiliation is almost invariably irrelevant to the misdeed committed. As such it is not necessary to highlight or headline such a fact.  The BBC should exercise such restraint even-handedly when reporting "small town" misdeeds.

Racist abuse councillor suspended

Councillor gets football ban

Race-jibe councillor banned by Labour

Recently The Times reported that the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) had created a team called Road Safety Support, to help the Police deal with the increasing number of drivers seeking to contest speeding tickets by citing “legal technicalities”. The legal technicalities included challenging whether a speed camera was properly calibrated, that speed signs were obscured or cameras had given false readings.  In many cases the Police have failed to secure convictions because they failed to comply with certain aspects of the law when enforcing speed limits.

It is curious that the Police find it exceptional that they must comply with the law when seeking to secure a conviction.  In this country, for centuries it has been incumbent upon prosecuting authorities to prove their case by presenting to the Court sufficient evidence of a defendant’s guilt.  Should radar equipment not be calibrated properly so that it records a speed of 33 mph for a vehicle travelling at 29 mph in a 30 mph limit, the driver is clearly not guilty of speeding.  Where a speed sign is obscured, natural justice requires that a driver unfamiliar with the area should not be prosecuted.

The setting up of this new unit is tantamount to the Police admitting that they were not exercising due diligence when presenting some of these cases to the Court and were failing to ensure that they possessed solid, reliable evidence.  It is nothing to do with “loopholes” and everything to do with competent evidence gathering and prosecution.

The Times - Speeding drivers with loophole lawyers

Tough on Liberty, tough on the causes of Liberty

According to Andrew Keen in his book The Cult of the Amateur, Web 2.0 is “killing our culture, assaulting our economy and destroying time-honoured codes of conduct” with amateurs creating an “endless digital forest of mediocrity: uninformed political commentary, unseemly home videos, embarrassingly amateurish music, unreadable poems, essays and novels.”  It is, “undermining truth, souring civic discourse, and belittling expertise, experience and talent.”  Wikipedia is identified as a particular villain, being riddled with “mistakes, half truths and misunderstandings” but yet being more popular than Britannica.com, thereby threatening the latter’s financial viability. What Wikipedia has done to reference books, bloggers will do to traditional news media, believes Mr Keen.

I believe Mr Keen is being alarmist, because ultimately, quality matters.  The laws of natural selection apply in the virtual, as well as the real world.  The very best survives and the rest fade away.  Britannica.com will live on because it is acknowledged as being authoritative whilst Wikipedia is not. The mainstream media cannot be seriously challenged by citizen bloggery and will remain ascendant because of its inherent professionalism and quality in depth.  Web logs are a passing fad and the current intense activity will pass leaving only a small number of the most committed.

Part of Mr Keen’s hypothesis relies also upon a premise that the average punter cannot differentiate between different sources of information with the result that the good will fall and the bad will prevail.  Yet we know that anything free is unlikely to be as good as something paid for.  Free, net-based sources of information are just a convenient, useful point of first reference before turning to, for example, the trusted newspaper, news magazine, or reference book.

Much on the net is trashy and ephemeral but the important point is that we all know it and when we don’t want monkeys, we avoid paying peanuts.

John-Paul Flintoff - The Sunday Times

David Smith - The Observer

Malaysia is a forward-looking, democratic country that abides by the rule of law.  It happens also to be a Muslim country.

According to the New Straits Times, at the High Court Registry in Shah Alam, the state capital of Selangor, on 14^th May 2007 a Hindu man, Mr V. Suresh, applied for a writ of habeas corpus seeking the release of his wife Siti Fatimah Abdul Karim (who I shall refer to, wrongly, as Mrs Suresh) from detention at the Baitul Aman Faith Rehabilitation Centre, where she had been sent by the Malacca Syariah High Court on 8^th January 2007.

Mr Suresh had married his wife according to Hindu rites on 10^th March 2004 at a Hindu temple in Malacca.  They lived together in Malacca and together had a daughter Diviya Dharshini, born on 19^th December 2005. The daughter was raised according to the Hindu religion.  By all accounts (and unsurprisingly) Mrs Suresh had professed the Hindu faith and had changed her name.  Following the marriage, she had attempted to formally change her name and religious status from Islam to Hindu and was advised by the Melaka Islamic Religious Department to make a formal application in this respect to the Malacca Syariah High Court.  The application was filed in late 2006 and the first hearing took place on 8^th January 2007.  Upon attending the hearing, Syariah Court officials detained Mrs Suresh and placed her in the Baitul Aman Faith Rehabilitation Centre.

You might think that my righteous indignation arises from the knowledge that this poor woman could be incarcerated simply for choosing to convert and practise the "wrong" religion. Whilst it is another example of how religious courts established to protect and advance the interests of their own faith cannot be trusted to apply justice without fear or favour, affection or ill will, in fact my ire is raised because in Malaysia, unlike the United Kingdom, its citizens still have an unrestricted right to apply for a writ of habeas corpus.

No one expects Hazel Blears to win the race to be deputy leader of the Labour Party, or even come second.  She is confidently expected to be an also-ran, merely unnecessarily making up the numbers.  It is a shame that the cards are stacked against her, because unlike some of her rivals, she is not “establishment” and inspite of her abilities and obvious success in her political career, she is still refreshingly “ordinary”, remaining indistinguishable in many respects from those constituents who elected her, an authentic representative of the people.

Why then, has her campaign become so accident prone?  First we had the “T-shirt” spanner and now her special adviser Paul Richards, who has been assisting with her campaign, is alleged to have breached rules by, in effect, working on her campaign using “day job” tools and time.

These “minor distractions” did not fall into the public domain by themselves.  Someone pushed them there, deliberately.  One ponders why, if Hazel Blears’ campaign is so doomed to failure, someone believes that it needs a helping hand down the pan?  Perhaps Miss Blears has more support in the Labour Party than is generally supposed.  I hope so.

The Daily Mirror

Hazel Blears' campaign to be Deputy Leader gains momentum

So, the Conservatives did not achieve any increase in their share of the vote in the 3^rd May 2007 elections as compared to the local elections in May 2006, according to most commentators.

As a matter of fact, they have.  Following last year’s local election results,  when the Conservatives appeared to have garnered the all important 40% of the vote, Professors Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher showed that in fact the share was 39%.  This was seized upon by the media, immediately. I can still recall clearly a Conservative MP appearing on a television programme where he expressed pleasure that the Conservatives had attained the all important 40% share of the vote, only to be slapped down by the BBC interviewer who pointed out that the share was only 39%.  How quickly the 39% has been forgotten.  Now, the uncorrected 40% figure has been resurrected to prove that the Conservatives have not made any progress since this time last year.  Unfortunately for the mainstream media, some of us have long memories.

It is interesting to note that in The Times of 5^th May 2007, Professors Rallings and Thrasher are reported to have confirmed that the Conservatives did achieve an increase in share of the vote as against last year, but more importantly that Labour did not increase their share by the full percentage point claimed and still languish at 26%.  Is it not strange that a large section of the media has not adjusted down Labour’s share of the vote as they did with the Conservatives last year?  On reflection, not really, I suppose.

Cameron ‘on course’ for No 10

Focus: A real pummelling for bruiser Brown

On 2^nd May 2007 a twenty-nine-year-old married female teacher, Jenine Saville-King, was found not guilty of eight charges involving alleged sex offences against one of her fifteen-year-old male pupils, at the conclusion of her trial at the St Albans Crown Court. Seven of the charges related to alleged sexual activity with a child and one, abuse of trust.

The Crown’s evidence involved not only the “victim’s” evidence, usually the only evidence available in a large number of cases involving sexual offences, but also Mrs Saville-King’s admissions of “having strong feelings for the boy” and of having sent six thousand text messages to him over a six-month period, including one hundred and thirty-one messages in a single day.  The Crown was able to produce records of these text messages as well hundreds of pages of MSN messages between the two.  Mrs Saville-King denied there had been any sexual relationship between her and the boy and claimed there had been only an emotional bond.  In effect, the defence attacked the boy’s character and called him a liar.  The jury duly deliberated upon the evidence and dismissed the charges.  I have no doubt that their decision was right.  Twelve of Mrs Saville-King’s peers weighed the evidence and found it wanting.  Anyone who read the lurid details of the trial published in the national press might raise an eyebrow, but bear in mind that press reports are supposed to entertain and juicy summaries never do justice to what is actually said in the court room. Every day the jury quietly made their notes, digested and balanced the evidence, gave all due consideration to what had been said, used their judgment and did their duty in reaching a just and fair verdict based upon all of the facts. At the end of the day, they preferred the account of Mrs Saville-King over the boy’s.

With good reason, there will not be any cry that justice has not been done, that young boys are being abused by teachers who are getting away with it.  Nor will there be any demand for a change in the law making it easier to convict defendants in cases of this nature.  How very different when the offence is one of rape by a male against a female.

After the trial, Mrs Saville-King described the allegations against her as “boastful fantasies and dishonest, spiteful untruths.”  Judges and juries sitting in Criminal Courts regularly face witnesses who give dishonest and untruthful testimony.  That these witnesses are found out depends upon allowing advocates to vigorously challenge their version of events, including putting to them matters appertaining to their character.  Humans tell lies, sometimes.

A seventeen-year-old teenager who made false allegations of rape against an Asian taxi driver, Aftab Ahmed, told her lies not “out of malice, but naivety and immaturity.”  Mr Ahmed did not suffer the ignominy of charge, remand in custody and the stress of standing trial, but he did lose his home, livelihood, reputation and found his family relationships and marriage under strain in the fourteen months it took for the lies of his accuser to be exposed in Court. The young lady in question received a four-month detention and training order from the Bradford Youth Court after admitting (very belatedly) a charge of perverting the course of justice.

Teacher cleared of having sex with pupil

Girl’s rape lie destroyed taxi driver’s life

The pundits' attempt to put a noose around the neck of the Conservative Party in the months immediately preceding the local elections in May 2006, by "talking up" council seat gains which, according to their analysis, would have to be achieved, were confounded by the Party's success in those elections.  Undeterred, the Media is now having a second bite at the cherry even though on this occasion the cards are even more heavily stacked against the Conservatives, for various reasons.

In the north, particularly in the conurbations, any Conservative advance has to contend with a Liberal Democrat challenge.  An unpopular Labour administration no longer leads to marginal council seats "going" Conservative because of floating voters changing allegiance and/or Labour core support remaining at home.  The Liberal Democrats are ever present to accept votes against which ever of the main parties is the most unpopular. For many years it has been a three horse race in local elections. The Liberal Democrats are going to win sack loads of seats in the north generally and in northern conurbations in particular.  The Conservatives on the other hand, will increase their vote but win few seats. At local level at the very least, the political landscape has changed and the lack of an obvious Conservative advance must be seen in that light.

In the south, the Conservatives already control a majority of the councils and have either reached or nearly reached their high-tide mark. The electorate often votes against incumbent councils.  Since the Conservatives suffered a local election meltdown in 1995, in successive local elections they have been recovering gradually their natural strongholds such that in many areas they are the incumbents. In this way Conservative seats are vulnerable.  The Liberal Democrats' ability to target seats in which they concentrate upon a very "localised" local issue, must not be lost sight of. An example is Woking Borough Council, where the Conservatives polled a significantly higher percentage of the overall vote in May 2006, but lost councillors in certain, targeted wards. The remaining Labour-held wards are now being targeted by the Liberal Democrats, so they will consolidate their control of Woking Borough Council on 3^rd May, with the Conservatives being mere onlookers, unable to affect the outcome.

UKIP's impact on the Conservative vote must not be overlooked either. In numerous councils where the Conservatives are defending against the Liberal Democrats, just a few score votes transferring from the Conservative to UKIP candidate in marginal wards would hand seats to the Liberal Democrats.

Polls indicate that support for the Conservatives nationwide stands at about 38%, the same as the best poll result published immediately before the local elections in May 2006. The actual poll result in 2006 was just short of 40%, underlining the fact that polls tend to underestimate actual support for the Conservatives by between 1% and 2%. On a 38% vote, Rallings and Thrasher calculate that the Conservatives would achieve 300-400 seat gains. I would venture that support for the Conservatives has reached 40% though certainly not the 42% required for a clear election victory.  I would suggest also that factoring in for instance, the manner in which the Liberal Democrat challenge functions "on the ground", the UKIP diversion and the aversion of disaffected, northern Labour voters to switch direct from Labour to Conservative, even with 40% of the vote, the Conservatives will still secure about 400 extra councillors only.  It is reported that privately the aim of the Conservatives is to gain at least 800 seats. One can conjecture the source of this private briefing, which appears mischievous. Whilst nationwide the Conservatives are challenging for more seats than both Labour and the Liberal Democrats and might be hotly contesting thousands of marginal seats, this is not the same as expecting to win all of them.  Even Labour strategists, who are expecting a hiding, calculate that they will lose between 400 to 500 seats. An ineffective showing by UKIP (possible) or the Liberal Democrats (highly implausible) and the Labour core vote remaining at home would hand eight hundred seats to the Conservatives, but the prerequisites for such a result are just not present.

That attempts will be made to extrapolate the results of the May 2007 local elections to show that the Conservative advance has stalled and that David Cameron will not win the 2009/10 election, should not trouble the Conseravtives.  Following the defeat at the General election of 1997, most commentators agreed that the Conservatives would not be able to overturn the Labour majority in just one election. The Party could not even start to do so whilst its deep unpopularity remained, as evidenced by the result of the 2001 General Election.  Whilst being still unpopular in some quarters, the 2005 election result was further distorted by the Liberal Democrats still being on a roll (largely achieved by the injection of funds from the now disgraced Michael Brown) which meant the Conservatives were often watching their backs whilst at the same time trying to attack Labour.  The General Election in 2009/10 will be the first when Conservative fortunes are in the ascendency but yet commentators now seek to convince us that only spectacular success in the forecoming local elections and outright success at the next general Election will do, otherwise (it will be argued) the Conservatives are in a desperate position where, goes the inference, recovery becomes less and less likely.  It is not so.  It took four consecutive election defeats before the Labour Party rejuvenated. During that rejuvenation it did not have to contend with the Liberal Democrats bleeding a part of its core vote.  Whilst it is correct that for a brief period the Social Democratic Party purported to be an alternative to Labour, the SDP realised quickly that there were more votes to be had from instinctively Conservative electors, hence the merger with the Liberal Party and the splitting of the non-Labour vote in every General Election since.

The Conservatives will not achieve any breakthrough until the Liberal Democrats are seen to be patently receding as a political force.  The Conservatives, through eighteen years of Government and eight years of drift in opposition, enabled the Liberal Democrats to thrive and entrench themselves.  In consequence the Liberal Democrats will not be dislodged in just one or two local elections. That the Liberal Democrats failed to make any impact during the local elections in 2006 was significant, but that lack of success could be (and was) brushed under the carpet before the Public absorbed what had happened.  On 4^th May 2007, after taking many Labour councillors' scalps (and a few from the Conservatives too) the Liberal Democrats will be crowing from the roof tops.  The Media will echo the Liberal Democrat triumph.  Commentators will burble and chatter about the Conservatives' lack of serious progress in "the north", the cities and elsewhere.  Whatever is said, the Conservatives will possess a significant number of new councillors following the May 2007 local elections. Their advance will not have stalled.  For their part, the Liberal Democrats still have to reap the whirlwind that they sowed by accepting the donation from Michael Brown, the donation that enabled them to so inflate their prospects in the 2005 General Election.  The future is bright - and still blue.

New Labour’s local election plans are going pear shaped

Labour strolling to "victory" in the local elections in May 2006

The Sunday Times

Seen by Labour's "intellectual" and "old" left as a joke candidate and provoking disdain amongst those on the Conservative right, Hazel Blears' mildly self-depreciating campaign for the deputy leadership of the Labour Party is gradually gaining support, nevertheless.

Miss Blears understands the vital importance of continuing to be relevant and attractive to so-called "middle class" voters and holding the political centre-ground.  This insight appears to be rapidly vanishing amongst a large section of the ascendant Labour hierarchy who do no more than pay it lip service.

If elected, Hazel Blears promises to ensure that the voice of the Labour Party membership is heard in cabinet.  She will do as she says. She is not a politician who deigns to acquaint herself with her constituents only once every four or five years. She listens to what people have to say and is described by supporters as "both considerate and tough" and as having an "ability to connect with voters like few other politicians." She has been politically astute by highlighting that it does not follow that the Prime Minister should automatically appoint the deputy leader as the deputy prime minister.

It is overlooked that Tony Blair's ability to appeal to a wide swathe of voters leading to the 1997 General Election and beyond was not the only reason for his historic election victories. A tired Government that after eighteen years had overstayed its welcome was always going to lose badly an election against an invigorated Official Opposition Party led by a popular new leader. More importantly, by 1997 and until 2005 the prospect of a Labour Government had ceased to frighten core supporters comprising the liberal, progressive wing of the Conservative Party. A significant minority of these supporters ceased their political activitism, thereby contributing to the loss of marginal constituencies.

Hazel Blears is popular with ordinary people.  She does not frighten the horses.  She is liked even though she is a Labour politician and a ready apologist for the nightmare that this Labour Government has become.  Whilst support from certain quarters of the centre-right might be tongue in cheek, the affection and respect for Miss Blears generally is genuine.  Labour activists ignore that at their peril.  Election of the current favourites for the leadership and deputy leadership can only assist the Labour Party's opponents' cause.

Hazel Blears for Deputy Leader of the Labour Party

The Chief Constable of North Wales, Richard Brunstrom's most irritating fault is that he almost always overstates his case, thereby undermining it.  Excessive speed is a killer, but there is inadvertent speeding and there is deliberate (often reckless) speeding. In failing to differentiate between the two he alienates those very citizens whose support he needs, just as with his beloved speed cameras.

It was unacceptable that he had not sought the permission of the families whose sons had been killed before showing photographs of their mutilated bodies to journalists and local authority representatives at a meeting to promote his Force's road safety work. Nevertheless, it is right that we be reminded of the consequences of irresponsible speeding and substandard driving, combined.  It is so easy to forget that in a collision, even when protected by seatbelts, airbags, collapsing bonnets and safety bars, the human body can suffer serious injury.  At high speeds it can simply disintegrate.

Shock tactics such as these should not be used too often lest their impact be weakened and relatives' permission for publication should be sought, always.  Had Mr Brunstrom not had the reputation of being the  "Mad Mullah of the Traffic Taliban" and with the permission of the relatives, perhaps he would not have caused such a furore.

Richard Brunstrom: Chief Constable and now humble Blogger

It should not be necessary for me to point out that the former Roxy Music star and singer Brian Ferry is not and never has been, a Nazi sympathiser.  It was with some bemusement on my part therefore when I read that he had apologised yesterday for saying Nazi imagery was “amazing”.

It seems that Mr Ferry had said in an interview with a German newspaper that the Nazis “knew how to put themselves in the limelight and present themselves” and that Helene Bertha Amalie Riefenstahl’s movies, Albert Speer's buildings, the mass parades and the flags were “just amazing. Really beautiful.”

Mr Ferry explained that he was “deeply upset” by the negative publicity his remarks had caused and added,

“I apologise unreservedly for any offence caused by my comments on Nazi iconography, which were solely made from an art history perspective. I, like every right-minded individual, find the Nazi regime, and all it stood for, evil and abhorrent.”

Given the death and destruction caused by the Nazis between 1933 and 1945 it is difficult to credit Germany with creating anything worthwhile during that period. The despatch of eight and a half million people in murder camps (everyone forgets about the two and a half million gypsies, two hundred and fifty thousands communists/trade unionists and two hundred thousand homosexuals) gives rise to an instinctive, overwhelming revulsion to the whole concept of Nazism and everything and everyone associated with it. Helene Riefenstahl is intimately and forever associated with the Nazis having directed Der Sieg des Glaubens (Victory of Faith) about the Nuremberg rally in 1933 and Triumph of the Will, the notorious documentary glorifying Adolf Hitler. As Riefenstahl was steadfastly unapologetic about her close collaboration with the Nazis, praise for her was always going to raise eyebrows.  Nevertheless, though critics have agreed that it is difficult to "separate the subject from the artist behind it", Riefenstahl’s work during that period is generally regarded as masterful, epic, and innovative. She is renowned for developing new aesthetics in film, especially in relation to nude bodies.  Anyone who has seen those Nazi propaganda documentaries, though repelled in significant measure, cannot deny that they are impressive.  Similarly some of Albert Speer’s architecture and designs were little short of magnificent.

No one can suggest reasonably that Brian Ferry did not make his comments in good faith from an “art history perspective”.  It is highly questionable whether he had anything for which to apologise.  That there was a suggestion that Marks & Spencer, for whom Mr Ferry models, should “reconsider [his] contract”, is wholly unacceptable. 

Mr Ferry’s opinions were unremarkable and did not merit censure.

Martin Beckford

Karen McVeigh

Much has been made of Gordon Brown’s incredible decision to sell a substantial part of the United Kingdom’s gold reserves at a time when the value of gold had fallen to rock bottom.  This has been brought to our attention again in an article by Holly Watt and Robert Winnett in The Sunday Times.

More importantly, this episode has gone to show how corrupt Government has become under the New Labour regime and how the Labour spin machine involves the use not only of its own apparatchiks but also supposedly impartial arms of government (in this case HM Treasury) and the misuse of laws and rules that should be applied even-handedly and without favour.

Watt reports,

“The Sunday Times has been battling the Treasury for 18 months to obtain documents revealing the advice it received on the sale of gold.  Under freedom of information laws, the paper has asked for statistical information relating to the decision to sell gold; minutes of ministerial meetings; official correspondence and studies into the aftermath of the decision.

 

Before the 2005 election the Treasury rushed out comparable information about the Conservatives’ darkest economic hour, Black Wednesday, but it took it five months to turn down this request, although it is required by law to respond within 20 working days [my italics and emphasis.]

 

Among five exemptions it has claimed to block publication is that “such information relates to the location (past or present) of the UK’s gold holdings, which, if made known, could increase risks to security”. This information is on the Bank’s official website.”

The conclusion that must be drawn is that this Government will readily accede to a Freedom of Information request that damages its opponents but obfuscates and seeks to bury anything that shows its own bad faith, venality or incompetence.

There has been considerable exaggeration concerning our so called “humiliation” at the hands of the Iranians by way of their seizure of fifteen Royal Navy personnel on 23^rd March 2007 and the alleged consequential loss of our military prestige.  That the abduction was allowed to occur reeks of incompetence on somebody’s part, but once it had taken place, we were left twisting in the wind until events took their course.

During the course of the past one thousand years the English, and latterly the British, have suffered numerous such “humiliations”.  There have always been steady supplies of tin-pot rulers and sometimes extremely powerful enemies who have seized our citizens or military personnel and subjected them to ritual, personal humiliation and sometimes even death.  It is the furore in the aftermath of such incidents that reveals our true mettle. These enemies always assumed the ease in which they inflicted the humiliation, was a sign of our weakness.  It was never so.  Retribution always followed by one means or another, even though the score being settled might be years in the coming.  These little embarrassments do no more than to strengthen our resolve to ensure that they do not happen again, so easily.

The seized personnel were pilloried for allowing themselves to be used for propaganda purposes by the Iranian Regime.  Regimes that pay no attention to the conventions of war have oft used captured soldiers for propaganda purposes.  The Chinese and North Koreans did so in the Korean War and likewise the North Vietnamese almost two decades later.  As we are not at war with Iran, it is not clear what proportionate response could have been made to ensure the earlier release of the hostages.  Besides, our military personnel cannot be expected to behave in a heroic situation on each and every occasion demanded of them, particularly when they are not at war with those who ambush them.  Not every imprisoned serviceman will behave like the prisoners of Colditz.  Even in Wellington’s Peninsula Army, arguably one of the best ever fielded by this country, seasoned soldiers ran away from time to time.  The Duke knew that most of them would return and fight another day.  Sometimes it is just not a good day to die.

Any argument that the abduction occurred because of our military weakness or lack of moral fibre is fatuous.  In many situations it is not militarily possible to rescue hostages, unless you are willing to spark the Third World War.  The mighty United States was forced to negotiate the return of their embassy staff seized by the Iranians on 4^th November 1979 and held for a little over fourteen months. Negotiation was the means of release for the crew of USS Pueblo, held for eleven months after being attacked and seized in international waters by the North Koreans on 23^rd January 1968. North Korea has never paid the price for that act of piracy.

Now it is only our pride that is hurt.  Only three centuries ago Arab slave traders regularly raided villages on the southwest coast of England, snatching thousands of free born Englishmen and women into slavery.  In July 1625, when as now, England possessed one of the most formidable navies in the World; these Islamic corsairs of Barbary sailed up the Bristol Channel, captured Lundy Island and raised the standard of Islam.  Now that was really embarrassing.

You can forget Alan Johnson the Education Secretary and Peter Hain, the Northern Ireland Secretary. Hilary Benn might be considered as “leading the race” for deputy by a wide margin and  Harriet Harman,  the Constitutional Affairs Minister described as “Gordon Brown's feminine conscience, on a crusade for women” because when it comes to overall suitability for the position of Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Hazel Blears walks it by a mile.

Miss Blears is a feisty woman who has never lost touch with her roots, “traditional working class” as she would describe them.  She had achieved the lofty position of Minister of the Crown (and now Labour Party Chairman) through her own efforts alone without benefit of privilege or favour.  What you see is what you get, a plain speaking Mancunian.  She is popular with the grass roots membership of her party and rightly so – she is one of the people.  Her effervescent optimism, ability to defend with full conviction an impossible position and infectious enthusiasm prove her to be a very capable individual as well as an endearing personality.

In the difficult times ahead for the Labour Party, Hazel Blear’s presence near the helm is in prudence, something it cannot forego.

Hazel for Deputy

I have never felt challenged by anyone possessed of opinions differing or even diametrical to my own, though upon occasion, the manner in which those opinions might be held or expressed, concomitant as they so often are with a presumption of intellectual and moral inferiority on my part, is more than a little wearisome.  Such conceit is a common vice (though not the exclusive domain) of the so-called “liberal left”, those self-appointed guardians of the moral high ground.  In the circumstances I should be forgiven a wry smile when reading recently an article by AA Gill in The Sunday Times where he wrote briefly about the sanctimonious George Monbiot and the insufferable Peter Hitchens,

“But don’t for a moment imagine that the bicycle-riding, organic-hedgerow-grazing, self-denying, 40-watt miserablists are in fact selfless crusaders for the common good. Never underestimate the sustaining pleasure in a hair shirt. Just look at George Monbiot, and witness a man who couldn’t be happier about the imminent demise of life as we know it. It’s given him purpose, prestige and celebrity: without global warming he’d be a geography teacher.”

For Peter Hitchens, no punches were pulled,

“Among journalists, Hitchens is fondly known by the nickname Bonkers. He’s called Bonkers Hitchens because he is raving bonkers, in a way that sells papers but makes him very annoying to sit next to on long flights. I’ve covered elections with him and seen him chase cars like an incensed border collie….[T]he great thing about Hitchens is that he never disappoints. Blissfully, he is utterly bereft of self-irony. For Bonkers there was nothing remotely odd or absurdly hilarious about hating the Conservative party for having Eton-educated, upper-class boys in it. Hitchens should be encouraged to do more. He’s like a lost biblical character from The Life of Brian.”

With Gordon Brown’s popularity declining by the day, seemingly ever quicker since the Budget debacle and now the revelation that he was fully aware of the damage that would be caused by his raid on pension funds, Conservative supporters can be forgiven for beginning to take for granted the prospect of a clear election victory within the course of the next two years.  The Government's flagship policies have failed and it is bereft of new ideas.  It is seen as (and is) incompetent and venal.  It has lost the trust of large swathes of the electorate.  It is inconceivable that, barring some serious political misfortune befalling David Cameron, the Conservatives will not win a majority at the next General Election.  Commentators such as Michael Portillo and Charles Moore are right to warn against over optimism on the part of the Conservatives, given that we are as much as two years away from the next General Election. Nevertheless it is unlikely that a Gordon Brown administration can pull anything out of the hat.  The smell of decay and sense of decline is too strong.

There is a danger that many Conservatives overlook at their peril.  Matthew Parris has alluded to it in his column in The Times.  Gordon Brown will lose the next General Election, but the Conservatives will secure but a tiny majority – a majority that evaporates after only a handful of by-election defeats.  It will be a weak Conservative administration that is at the mercy of the elements and will fall at the very next General Election.

In 2009/2010 there will be too many factors that militate against a handsome majority for the Conservatives - a majority that is so important for strong leadership and Government and the essential foundation of a second consecutive Conservative term.  Labour might well be embarrassed in the elections that are to take place in May 2007 but do not expect those deserting Labour supporters to do the same in a General Election.  Disappointed with their Government they might be, but desirous of a Conservative administration they are not.  Neither should it be forgotten that many electors employed in the public sector depend upon Gordon Brown’s largesse.  They are hardly likely to vote for an administration that is never going to be so generous.   Then there is the current bias in the electoral system which might hand at least a dozen seats to Labour which strictly speaking on a vote for vote basis should belong to the Conservatives.  Neither should the Liberal Democrats be underestimated.  Whilst they will not enjoy a fillip such as that generated by Michael Brown’s considerable donation immediately prior to the General Election in 2005 the membership will be fighting hard to return their sitting MPs.  Many of their seats might only have majorities of a few hundred but few will fall.  Sandra Gidley (Romsey) and Chris Huhne (Eastleigh) will still be there after the next General Election.  It is still not fully appreciated that the “anyone but a Tory” tactical voting campaign that developed following Labour’s 1992 election defeat is still practised amongst many voters opposed to the Conservatives.  Then there is UKIP which so many Europhobic Conservatives are promising to support rather than the Cameron led Conservatives.  Commentators are agreed that these Conservatives could not bear to contribute to an historic fourth consecutive Labour election victory, but yes they could and yes they will.  The inability to make any great inroads in Scotland and Wales, or significant gains in Labour heartlands and recovery of seats lost to the Liberal Democrats in the south will deny the Conservatives a landslide.  Labour has to be well and truly broken for that.  It isn’t, yet.

This is where David Miliband could prove to be the Conservatives' saviour.  Should he become the next Prime Minister rather than Gordon Brown he would achieve what John Major managed in 1992.  The Conservative lead in the opinion polls would evaporate temporarily and in the hastily called General Election in late 2008/early 2009 Labour would be returned for its fourth consecutive term but with a small, even tiny majority.  It is at this point that Labour’s wheel will truly fall off and the Party will be broken.  Miliband cannot create a Cabinet full of fresh new faces.  It would have to include some of the old timers with form.  There will be those in the Party whose political ambitions are thwarted by the young upstart, including Gordon Brown.  The fault lines in this new Labour administration will be present from day one.  The administration will be racked by internal feuding.  The “Old Labour” MPs will seethe that a Blairite has stolen the Crown.  It will not be a strong, united administration.  For the first time in over twelve years the Government will be opposed by an invigorated opposition, led by David Cameron, an opposition only a handful of by-election victories away from bringing it down.  The Country will expect.  The Government will fail to deliver.  The Conservatives will romp to decisive victory.

Of course, the Conservative high command has worked out all of this by itself, hence the misinformation being leaked to the press concerning their fearing a Miliband Premiership and the setting up of an anti-Miliband unit.

Then again, and this is the beauty of politics, it could all be bluff and double bluff.

A Government with a small majority is vulnerable only if the opposition is strong.  The Labour Party consigned to opposition in 2009/2010 will not be strong.  It will be demoralised and disunited just as it was following its election defeat in 1979.  It will bear little resemblance to the Labour Party that unexpectedly lost the 1970 General Election but which reversed that result only three and a half years later in 1974.  There will be recriminations and disunity.  The Labour opposition will not look like a Government in waiting.  Mr Cameron could still win his second term. 

Clunking Fist he might be, but being able to land a heavy blow is no good if your opponent can hit you much harder, twice, first.

It has been commented upon on countless occasions that Gordon Brown is nowhere to be seen when the Government has been embroiled in a spot of bother. Whilst just about every other Minister of the Crown had taken a count or even kissed the canvass upon at least one occasion, Mr Brown did not have a mark on him. This was not as a result of any skill on his part, rather the ability not to be in the ring when the fists were flying. When Premier, this ring dodging will have to stop. Those of us who have always suspected Gordon Brown of having a clay jaw eagerly anticipate his exchanges as Prime Minister, with the Witneyville Lip.

Since 1990, three hundred and six level crossings, approved by an arm of Government that did not have the legal power to do so, have as a consequence been erected illegally. Drivers who have been fined and had their licences endorsed with penalty points after being caught going through red lights at these crossings will now be able to challenge their convictions as they had not in fact committed any offence.

The Government is unlikely to disclose the location of these illegal rail crossings.  According to Dipesh Gadher of The Sunday Times, a Government source has said:

“We will try to make it as difficult and as expensive as possible for anyone to challenge us in the courts. Even though these drivers might have been wrongly penalised due to a technicality, we would use the moral argument that they were potentially endangering lives by ignoring a red light.”

Government has bungled.  It has not acted within the Law.  No matter how undeserving the appellants, they were not breaking the Law.  The Government should come clean and publish details of the "illegal" crossings so that the motorists involved can lodge appeals against their convictions.  In applying laws, rules and regulations approved by Parliament, Government owes us a duty to comply itself with those very prescriptions - to comply with the Rule of Law.  Relying upon "moral argument" when the Law is against you is a slippery slope.  The Government should do the right thing.

"Are my fellow Muslims so weak in their faith that they think God needs their violence to defend His eternal truth? I believe that their weakness and ignorance of Islam is the reason that they fear honest debate."

Yahya Merchant

The BBC has highlighted a report prepared by Rob Allen on behalf of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies that claims that too many children are prosecuted and criminalised.  Previously Mr Allen had been engaged for eight years as a member of the Youth Justice Board and as such it is safe to assume that he is well versed in the realities of child offending.  He considers that there should be greater emphasis on the educational, social and mental health needs of younger offenders. Mr Allen believes that we have become preoccupied with protecting the public from young people and that there is a growing intolerance of teenage misbehaviour of all kinds.

It is easy to dismiss Mr Allen's views as typically air-headed, left-wing liberal and soft on crime, but I happen to agree with him. More children are badly behaved, or allowed to be badly behaved than when I was a child.  Similarly, a growing number of young adults no longer appear to know how to conduct themselves responsibly in public.  The rule and convention abiding public have come to feel besieged and the howls of the tabloid press purporting to speak on their behalf has bullied successive administrations Labour and Conservative into "doing something about it".  The "something" has borne all the hallmarks of being knee-jerk, rather than being calmly and coolly considered whilst in possession of all the material facts.  It was inevitable that once the age of criminal responsibility was lowered, an increasing number of younger children would be sucked into the criminal justice system and most unnecessarily.

There are offences so bad that even a child should know that they are wrong, but nuisance and silly offending should not be the subject of criminal sanction.  "Pecking order fights" in the school playground now result in prosecution.  That should not be so.  Such behaviour represents a phase of male development.  It is ridiculous and wrong-headed to apply the same opprobrium or a criminal sanction to a playground scrap between two thirteen year-old boys as to a bar room brawl involving two men.  Hormones or whatever, it is a phase boys "grown out of" as they mature.  Only males with serious problems still fight by the time they reach their late teens and early twenties.  It is those individuals with whom the State ought to concern itself.

The BBC, in its usual impartial and helpful way, reminds us in its report of the age of various offenders who committed very serious crimes, children such as Jon Venables and Robert Thomson, Danny and Rickie Preddie and Mary Bell. However, these children were the exception to the rule.  It is important to point out that crimes of that  gravity committed by children occur very rarely. The murder committed by Mary Bell took place in 1968.  James Bulger's murder by Venables and Thomson took place twenty-five years later in 1993 and Damilola Taylor's in 2000.

In essence, most child crime is very small beer and is committed largely for reasons other than just plain "badness" or "poor upbringing".  Children can be immature and silly, behave irrationally, empathise with others to a limited degree only or not at all.  They possess all manner of "flaws" caused by their lack of life experiences which can limit their being able to behave well or responsibly in each and every social situation.

The truth is that in most cases "kids" just grow up.  "Special intervention" by the Court system is more likely to do harm than good.  The Nanny State should heed this research and just butt out.  The Shadow Home Affairs minister Edward Garnier should take note.

In Brighton yesterday Sir Menzies Campbell used his first conference to proclaim that,

“the country was crying out for a political party with firm principles, but gave warning that the Liberal Democrats needed to grow up and “act as a party of government” if they wanted to advance in Parliament.”

This is an unequivocal admission that the Liberal Democrats currently are neither a party of principle or “grown up”.  Can a leopard change its spots?

A Government Man doing the Government’s business

New Labour has set its heart upon imprisoning more motorists

Bending rules to ensure higher conviction rates is fraught with danger

The NHS: It is time to return to basics

Is this the thin end of the wedge?

Valerie Elliott reports in The Times today about the cancellation of a planned chase involving an artificial scent[1] in Central London by members of the  “Connaught Square Squirrel Hunt”.  Threats had been made by animal rights activists against the event such that the Police feared that they would create a public order incident.

Once again angry, resentful fanatics threatening violence have  successfully curtailed a lawful activity.

Whilst the Police seem to be very willing to protect our rights when a lawful pursuit is followed by the majority or a pet minority, when a pursuit by the unfavoured is involved, it is just too much trouble to police.  I can well imagine that the drag hunt organisers were warned darkly that if the event proceeded and any trouble erupted, everyone would be arrested, including the riders, for “public disorder.”

The animal rights activists have shown their true colours.  This was nothing to do with animal welfare.  They don’t like the sort of people comprising the Connaught Square Squirrel Hunt and they are going to stop them doing anything they do, just because. I shall leave the last word to Duncan Macpherson, joint master of the hunt, who is reported to have said:

“These activists are clearly even more absurd than I thought if they were going to protest about huntsmen and dogs chasing a smelly sock.”

“It will no longer be credible for Liberal Democrats to appeal for votes, as so often we do, on the basis that we would be better managers. It will no longer be credible to campaign, as sometimes we do, on a disparate series of populist gimmicks… Our party has been guilty of such populism at all levels of government. Other parties can repair cracked paving stones or improve local eyesores as well as we can, and campaign on a platform of doing so just as effectively.”

So says Graham Watson MEP, the leader of Liberal Democrats and allied groups in the European Parliament.  He mentioned also that the Liberal Democrats, “had relied upon populist gimmicks for too long and failed to put forward a coherent policy agenda.”

I should remark that had the Liberal Democrats not said one thing to one set of voters and something completely different to others elsewhere, their party could not have been anywhere near as successful during the course of the past fifteen years. How else are Lib Dem candidates going to appeal to Labour voters in the north and Conservative voters in the south?

‘Out of touch’ Campbell attacked by senior Lib Dems -  Sam Coates

“The tragedy of the episode is that the Pope was arguing against the idea that violence can be justified in any religion. He was making the case for the compatibility of reason with religion at a time when fundamentalism is gaining terrifying ground across the religious spectrum.

The irony is that the Islamic response illustrates how desperately the world needs to hear his message.”

Ruth Gledhill

The sight of violent Muslim-hothead reaction to the ill-chosen words of the Pope is galvanising further anti-Islamic sentiment in the West.  It is time for moderate Islam to make its voice heard.

Michael Horsnell reports in The Times today about the case of Warren Blackwell who was convicted in October 1999 of indecent assault after a woman claimed that she had been attacked by him in the early hours of New Year’s Day, 1999. Initially Mr Blackwell had been sentenced to a three-year term of imprisonment. In March 2002 the Court of Appeal refused him permission to appeal and upon a cross-application by the Attorney-General arguing that that sentence was “unduly lenient”, increased the sentence to one of five years’ imprisonment. Following the involvement of the Criminal Cases Review Commission and fresh evidence coming to light, the case was referred back the Court of Appeal and yesterday Mr Blackwell’s conviction was declared unsafe.  The new evidence disclosed that the complainant had made “strikingly similar allegations” about other sex attacks, had an ability to lie and a possible propensity to self-harm.

The Government is very likely to change the law to make it easier to convict a defendant in cases of this nature.  In effect, the new rules that are being proposed will make it more difficult for defence lawyers to test an alleged victim’s veracity.

Better for ten innocent men to be convicted, than for one guilty man to go free.

Professor Jennifer Temkin rides again: devious barristers and ignorant judges

Bending rules to ensure higher conviction rates is fraught with danger

ContraTory rides again (or the case of a woman scorned?)

The Daily Telegraph

You have to hand it to the Liberal Democrats.  They are never more self-righteous or sanctimonious than when they themselves have something they would prefer to be swept under the carpet.  The next few weeks and months are going to prove very embarrassing for them as the tsunami proportioned ripples caused by their erstwhile donor Michael Brown inexorably spread ever wider, and in their direction. After being exposed recently for having concealed their leader's alcoholism from the electorate for years, you might have thought they would keep their heads down for a respectable period.  Alas (for them) it is not their way.

Robert Watts and Melissa Kite report today in The Sunday Telegraph about a story which is an attempt by the Liberal Democrats to divert attention away from themselves, onto the Conservatives.  The Liberal Democrat treasury spokesman, Lord Oakeshott, claims that a Westminster office block was sold to the Tories for millions less than it was worth.  The Conservatives bought Tufton Street in March for £15.6 million. Lord Oakeshott, who manages a property investment company, says the true market value would be at least £25m (but then of course, he would say that, wouldn't he?)  According to Lord Oakeshott the acquisition of the office block “looks like a purchase on very favourable terms, so that it could be in effect be a concealed donation.”  However a spokesman for the Conservatives has clarified that the party had not bought the property for substantially less than its market value and explained that the two properties acquired are situated next door to each other and are worth jointly more than if they belonged to separate owners.

It is only a few weeks since the Conservatives were "reported"  for a deal involving the sale of their former headquarters at Smith Square.  In that case, being sitting tenants, quite legitimately they had been able to purchase the freehold of the property for a lower significantly sum than the price at which they could sell it.  Foul! shouted cash strapped Labour and Liberal Democrats.

Of course, this is all pure politics and the moral of the story is not to let the Liberal Democrats (or anyone else for that matter) get away with diverting attention from the mote in their own eye.

Just make a note of this somewhere…

“But I really dislike both their smugness and the way they tailor their electoral appeal to smugness. The Liberal Democrats are far too self-satisfied. They don't just think they may be right. They know they're right. They look down on other parties as ignorant, corrupt or both. They believe without question that they alone occupy the moral high ground. There is nothing they like more than to sneer at Labour or the Tories.  At times it can be insufferable. They are the dinner party party.”

Martin Kettle

Jonathan Leake reports that the American mink, a lethal predator blamed for driving water voles to the brink of extinction, is being forced back by the resurgence of the native otter. 

“For thirty years mink, the descendants of escapees from fur farms, have been devastating Britain’s fish, aquatic birds and mammals, with conservationists losing hope they could ever be eradicated.”

A report from the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at Oxford University, suggests that when otters return to an area they seem to be attacking the American mink and driving them out.

I loved the bit about “mink, the descendants of escapees from fur farms.”  This conjured a mental picture of mink cleverly building tunnels and gliders Colditz style, to escape their captors.  It is true that some mink escaped from fur farms, but not in such numbers as to have enabled them to inflict such carnage upon our native wildlife.  In truth, these vicious predators gained a hold in this country only by reason of Animal Rights activists “liberating” tens of thousands of them during raids upon fur farms over a number of years. Eight thousand were released from one farm alone in September 1998.  It curious that none of the news reports I heard or read today made that point. I am sure that angry finger pointing at the moment we learn that our native vole population is not (as had been thought) heading for extinction, was thought inappropriate. It is a point that has to be made, however. Animal rights activists don't know a lot about animals.  They don't know much about the environment either, for that matter.  They do know a lot about hating, threatening and hurting humans, on the other hand.

According to Greg Hurst in The Times today,

“Sir Menzies Campbell signalled a shift in strategy to target disaffected Labour voters yesterday ….taking votes and seats from Labour will now form the overwhelming thrust of the Lib Dems’ election planning as the party positions itself to gain from bitterness and divisions over Tony Blair’s departure plans.”

It was not so long ago that the Liberal Democrats were seeking to convince us that the Conservative Party was finished and that they were the only viable opposition to New Labour. It was upon this platform that they wrested successfully from Conservative control numerous seats in the south of England and elsewhere.  It is now conceded by the Liberal Democrats that they might lose a handful of seats to the Conservatives led by David Cameron in the next general election.

We can rest assured that the Liberal Democrats will seek to retain as many formerly Conservative seats in the south as possible, but it will not be “a handful” lost if they represent themselves as the alternative to Labour.  A slight of hand will be necessary; otherwise that handful might have to be counted not only upon the fingers of both hands, but the toes of each foot, too.  As has happened so often in the past, the Lib Dems are going to have to present themselves as being “all things to all men”. This is completely unprincipled. Such chicanery must not go unpunished. It is incumbent upon Labour and the Conservatives henceforth to spotlight  Liberal Democrat duplicity and question what the “third party” party really stands for.

Today, in a speech to be given in Edinburgh, the Chancellor Gordon Brown will accuse the Conservatives of wishing to break up the United Kingdom by pressing for a policy of “English votes for English laws”, whereby Scottish MPs would be excluded on voting on certain issues south of the Border.

Nobody mention the Scotland Act 1998.

Chancellor scotches idea he's not British

Two sisters, Joyce Burden 88, and her sister Sybil 81, are liable for a large bill in respect of inheritance tax when the first dies.  They have brought a test case against the Government before the European Court of Human Rights, claiming discrimination against heterosexuals.  The case is the first of its kind since the law was changed to allow gay and lesbian partners the same inheritance rights as married couples.

Property left by one spouse to the other or inherited by a married or civil partner is exempt from the tax. Close relatives, such as siblings and descendants, are not eligible to register as civil partners.  The sisters  claim that the inheritance tax laws breach their right to enjoy their property under the first protocol to the Human Rights Convention and the anti-discrimination provisions of Article 14.

The Government claims that,

“Couples enjoy a relationship of choice.  Siblings however, enjoy a relationship of consanguinity. Further, the relationship between siblings is for ever, whereas couples may part.”

Adding,

 “... a couple made a financial commitment by making a personal commitment to each other.  This was not the case with siblings.”

For political reasons, the European Court will find against the sisters but the Government's arguments are nonsense.  When the inheritance tax “breaks” applied only to the special relationship of marriage, there was a clear and obvious difference between “marrieds” and “the rest”. The only real difference between a married or civil partnership and that of the sisters is that it is presumed that there is or was a sexual element to the former.  Consanguinity is an irrelevance.  Here, the sisters chose to live together (initially to care for their parents) and have made a de facto personal commitment, including a financial commitment, to each other. As with all partners they could, if they wished, separate. Thus, there is no significant, material difference between them and any gay or lesbian couple living together.   In principle, they should win the case.   Once again this Government, in pursuit of its political agenda, has not thought through the blatantly obvious consequences of its legislation and caused considerable injustice.

Sisters go to court over 'gay bias' in tax laws

“When we were all younger, we knew who the pillars of our local community were: professional men and women such as doctors, teachers, bank managers and solicitors. Now, though, the cracks start to appear. A firm of solicitors in Wiltshire has decided to tout for business by asking local traders to recommend them when they hear about marital break-ups that might lead to the parties concerned requiring the services of a lawyer. Happily, one dignified local tradesman — a hairdresser — has pointed out that the integrity of his bond with his customers includes not betraying the confidences relayed in the sanctity of the salon, least of all in return for a commission — or should we say kick-back? — from a firm of ambulance-chasers. What is even more appalling is that the firm protests, and I have no doubt it is correct, that all this is being done in accordance with Law Society rules. Doesn't the Law Society appreciate how a majority of decent solicitors are having their reputations dragged down by such spivvery? And does it care?”

 

Simon Heffer

No, it does not care.  It is all part of The Law Society’s Brave New World.

“Yet public policy in this country likes to treat with Muslim citizens through self-appointed religious leaders, does little to encourage the use of English, stands aside at the oppression of women in many Muslim families, and allows preachers of hate to incite violence. Remarkably little thought is given to what it is like to be a Hindu or a Sikh or a Jew or a Muslim who resents clerical power or, increasingly, a Christian in a heavily Muslim area, in Britain today.”

Charles Moore

“No man but a fool ever wrote, except for money.”

Dr. Johnson

What does that make bloggers, then?