India Knight on Moat
India Knight in The Sunday Times, is one of my favourite columnists. Today, she turns her attention to the monstrous Raoul Moat and domestic violence. She feels that we don’t take the latter seriously enough!
We don’t! C practiced at the bar long enough to see this odious crime come down the generations, just as child abuse does.
To me, violence has no place in life, except in somewhere like the boxing ring under the proper rules.
An Interesting Legal Blog
I was married to C for narly forty years and you can’t live with a barrister for that long, without getting interested in how the law works.
C did one of her pupilages in a top libel Chambers and had definite views on that subject. For instance, she believed strongly, that you never got involved in a libel case either as plaintiff or defendant. I never have and probably never will, especially if the libel laws in the UK are reformed so that the courts in the UK can’t be used to suppress such things as scientifically correct views, that go against the commercial interests of others! Let’s hope that what is said in this report actually becomes law.
I was led by an e-mail to this blog, which is one of the more interesting legal blogs I have read. It has already had an effect on my views. Read it, enjoy it and be cynical!
What Do We Do With the Raoul Moats of this World?
Some who knew Raoul Moat say he was an odious violent man, but others point to a softer and much more agreeable side to his character. But unfortunately, the bad side of his character won the battle and ultimately caused his destruction.
But how do we prevent people from becoming the next Raoul Moat?
Surely, if we could stop just a couple it would be worthwhile.
Whilst, browsing The Times web site, I found this article from Alice Thomson. I agree with virtually everything she says, but how much of it would ever get implemented?
Very little, I suspect.
The Most Powerful Men and Women in England
C, my late wife was a barrister, who dealt mostly with family matters.
Some of the posts about Pfizer’s legal action, worried about the company acting outside of the law.
One day, C came home and told me about the High Court tipstaffs. I think she had been doing a case in the Principal Registry of the Family Division, which used to be in Somerset House. Surely, there is no better place for a court.
I can’t remember the exact details of the case, as she never told me But I suspect it was to do with a father hiding the children and refusing to tell anybody, where they were, as she had quite a few cases where this happened. In this case, because one of the highest courts in the land had been disobeyed, the case was handed over to the tipstaff. C said that their powers are unprecedented and they only answer to the highest judges, like the Lord Chief Justice. Even Prime Ministers have to obey the tipstaff. Read about them in Wikipedia.
This paragraph details their powers.
The High Court Tipstaff may appoint three assistants and can call on any constable, bailiff or member of the public to assist in carrying out their duties and their jurisdiction extends throughout England & Wales. They are authorised to force entry if necessary and will have a police officer present to prevent breach of the peace. The relevant territorial police force are informed of arrests.
Sometimes a local bailiff or police will detain a person in custody until the Tipstaff arrives to collect him and take him to court or prison. Pentonville Prison (for civil offenders) is obliged to take into custody‚ no matter the situation‚ any people taken there by the Tipstaff.
The article also details how the tipstaff can act in Family cases.
The majority of their work involves taking children into custody (ie a place of safety)‚ including cases of child abduction abroad.
In child abduction cases, there may be a ‘seek and locate’ order backed by a bench warrant ordering any person with knowledge of the child to give that information to the Tipstaff or his deputy or assistants. Related orders may require the alleged abductor to hand his passport and other travel documents to the Tipstaff, and order the Tipstaff to take the child and deliver him/her to a designated place. There may also be a ‘port alert’ executed by the Tipstaff, to help prevent the child being taken abroad.
In the case of children who have been declared a ward of court i.e. cases where the court is acting in loco parentis the Tipstaff has a role in ensuring that those children are delivered to the locations specified by the court.
You would imagine that a tipstaff would be a large, powerfully-built man with either sevice or police training. But the tipstaff that C met was a small, slight, extremely polite and persuasive lady of Asian origin. Remember though that she can order anyone to help her and that she has almost absolute power in the matter she is dealing with. C said that she only has to answer to the highest judges.
Pfizer Strikes Back
Vast amounts of spam are advertising one of Pfizer’s products; Viagra. On a spam list, I’ belong to, there has been a lot of discussion, about how the company has gone for a guy in the UK, who has been faking Viagra and selling it on the web. Here is a report from the Sydney Morning Herald.
I applaud Pfizer for what they are doing here, although others think that the company is acting outside of the law. But in the UK, if you do go outside the law, you’ll receive the proverbial ton of bricks.
Justice – Afghan Style
This case asks a lot of questions about Afghanistan. Surely though, there comes a time, when the country should be left to its own devices, Taliban and all. It has lots of mineral resources, so what will happen in the end is its neighbour, China, will make commercial deals to get it out and Karzai and his cronies will run to some tax haven and live in comfort for the rest of their days. We will just suffer more and more crime and corruption due to the increasing amount of drugs flowing our way. Somehow we must find some way of stopping people taking the damn things!
The sad thing about the country is that a friend visited in the 1960s. Then Afghanistan provided masses of fruit like apples for the whole of the region. Since then it has been one sorry tale after another.
Now we just get more and more grief exported from this sorry, perverted and corrupt country. We should get out immediately.
Jail For Noisy Sex?
Stories like this show why the prisons are full. Surely, there must be a better way of justice, than to give people ASBOs and then sentence them, when they inevitably break them? We need to recreate a decent socety, where people respect each other. ASBOs just seem to give people other reasons to get people they don’t like out of their lives. There must be a better and more cost effective way! In the end, we have a small island with limited space and housing and we can’t all behave selfishly!
Clarke Gets Tough On Prisons
It would appear from the BBC, that Kenneth Clarke is going to get tough on the costs of prisons.
In a speech later, he will say he is amazed at the growth in the prison population and he will demand a radical new approach to cut re-offending.
It will involve paying private firms and voluntary groups according to how many prisoners they rehabilitate.
Prisons must focus on “education, hard work and change,” Mr Clarke will add.
He is absolutely right, as it is not humane in this day and age to just lock so many people up and do nothing to stop their pattern of reoffending.
I have for many years advocated an on-line database of all prisoners, that can be read on-line. It would obviously not identify individual prisoners, but it would enable serious research to be done. We must reduce the cost of criminal justice and punishment.
For instance, the database might contain things like :-
- Sex
- Age Group – 25-35 etc.
- Nationality
- Country of Birth
- Literacy
- Health State
- Smoker/Non-Smoker
- Has father been to jail?
- Married/Single/Children
- Drug User/Clean
- Last Crime
- Sentence
- Number of times in custody
Whether you put race and religion in would be very controversial and would probably be best left out, as people like the BNP would use it to their advantage.
But the database must be able to answer questions like how many of those serving over 20 years in jail have conditions like Alzheimer’s. According to David Ramsbotham’s excellent book, Prisongate, there are a large number and they are a large drain on resources of the Prison Service. Surely, they should be somewhere else.
i also live near a large prison and in the local area, those who keep large numbers of horses also complain they can’t get staff to do manual work, so many bring in temporary workers from all sorts of places outside the EU. Couldn’t some of the inmates fill this gap? This has been done successfully before in places like New York State.
additionally, why not use prisoners to pick seasonal produce and other jobs for which there are a shortage of workers? Any money earned would go to their victims or to support their own families. Remember that supporting prisoner’s families is quite a drain on benefits and if they are not supported in some way, we’re just creating the conditions for a whole new generation of career criminals.
The Hoax Call Rapper
This idiot is plaguing Manchester with hoax calls. He has made hunreds of calls and they cost the fire service about a thousand pounds a month.
Just like the thieves who stole the cables yesterday, perhaps we need an offence of endangering the lives of the general public, that has an effect.
I Wouldn’t Like To Be These Thieves If the Commuters Get Them!
Thieves have stolen 90 metres of signalling cable from outside Paddington according to the BBC. It is causing major problems.
But at least the systems appear fail-safe and no-one has been hurt. It would be different of course, if the commuters got their hands on the thieves.
Years ago, I did some analysis for Railtrack and to stop signal cable thefts, they were replacing copper cable with fibre optic. The latter was cheaper and of coursehad no value if stolen, as who wants lots of glass thread? So the thieves just turned up with cutters and destroyed the fibre optic cables, in the vain hope that Railtrack would replace it with copper. They didn’t of course.
Perhaps though, those that get caught stealing cables, which control life-saving systems like signals or motorway signs, should be charged with something more serious like attempted manslaughter.
The Anonymous Widower 