Cllr. Gavin Ayling

Apparently John I’ve-been-alright-up-to-now-so-I’m-going-to-ruin-it Reid is considering (consulting) on ways to stop people ‘getting off’ on legal loopholes. BBC News.

I’m going to put my neck on the line and say that, not only can it not be done, that it shouldn’t be done and that the need for it comes out of poor laws.

First, if there’s a legal loophole, as John Reid wants to describe it, then there’s either a mistake in the way the law(s) has been written or there’s a jolly good reason for it being there. If you try and close loopholes independently of the law itself then you are at risk of imprisoning people who, because this loophole is significant, would otherwise be free. Their liberty is being taken, not because they’ve committed a crime, but because John Reid thinks that that loop hole or this should be ‘closed’.

I’m no lawyer, and frankly I’m pleased about that because all lawyers seem to think the law’s ambiguity is a good thing — surely there should be no need for barristers (sorry for the earlier Americanism) if laws were written properly:

“It’s illegal to steal and the punishment for stealing is XX.”

That was easy wasn’t it! Cue barristers telling me how important it is that the law should need to be interpreted like some sick form of theology.

So I say to Reid, don’t close loopholes across the board, and don’t try. Correct your laws and don’t put that “law abiding majority” at risk of wrongful imprisonment so that you can cut corners and appease Daily Mail readers.

I don’t agree that its tragic, do you?

BBC News: Woman dies as cocaine bags break

It has often been said that education is key to a functioning society. It is odd, then, that the UK has survived for so long.

But education is needed in a more serious sense in some parts of the Third World. Consider the story in Reuters today about village elders in India using burning oil to find the guilty.

UKIP will not oppose MP’s who join Better Off Out’s list of supporters:

Newly elected UK Independence Party leader, Nigel Farage MEP, a leading supporter of BETTER OFF OUT, has pledged that UKIP will not oppose sitting MPs who support the BETTER OFF OUT campaign. Mr. Farage made his position abundantly clear, in one of his first interviews after being elected Leader, on BBC Radio Four’s PM programme. Nigel has previously gone on record as saying that “The BETTER OFF OUT campaign has redefined euroscepticism in Britain. Anybody not signed up to BETTER OFF OUT should not call themselves eurosceptics.” His pledge not to oppose BETTER OFF OUT MPs gives a major boost to those who have demonstrated the courage to back the campaign. Despite attempts by David Cameron to smear UKIP voters as “closet racists”, the new UKIP Leader has shown he is prepared to adopt a more statesmanlike role and to co-operate with members of other parties for the greater good of the country.

The bold in the quote is my addition.

As you know I’m not one to blow my own trumpet (actually, I’m really not), but I thought I’d point you to Iain Dale’s highly subjective list of the top 100 Conservative blogs.