Earlier today (and many times previously) I have commented on the grossly socially unfair (almost quasi-Victorian) style of much justice in the UK. My piece first thing today I opined:
‘…..the legal system operates to bully the vulnerable (Newscorp) protect the powerful (Met Police) ignore the wind-sailors (Jeremy Hunt) arrest the politically incorrect (Stonewall) control the media (Andrew Marr) and recognise fewer and fewer financial crimes as worthy of their attention (Barclays and RBS). In 2012, the main thing the legal system needs protection from is the lawyers running it.’
Harsh but fair. I’m indebted to David Archibald on Twitter but drawing my attention to this Torygraph piece which makes my case better than any oped might. Referring to the nights of rioting in London, the article is from August 2011. It reads:
‘Nicolas Robinson, 23, of Borough, south-east London, carried out the “opportunistic” theft [of a bottle of water] at a Lidl supermarket in Brixton as he walked home from his girlfriend’s house.
Robinson threw away the water and ran when he was confronted by police but was arrested and quickly admitted what he had done.
His solicitor told Camberwell Magistrates’ Court had “got caught up in the moment” and was “incredibly ashamed”. But District Judge Alan Baldwin said the background of “serious public disorder” was an aggravating feature.’
Members of this dangerous criminal’s family in the public gallery gasped with disbelief as the judge told him he would be going to prison….for six months.
Well Judge Baldwin, you are a hypotwit. A hypocrite because you know full well the real bad guys would’ve evaded prison by simple not turning up at the hearing. And a twit because you send an otherwise respectable young man to a place of incarceration whose generic track-record as a reformatory institution is utterly hopeless.
Nicolas Robinson had no criminal record. Robert E. Diamond Jr, however, has form going back to at least 2003 as a man who (as one New York District Judge declared in 2010), “Is evasive, unbelievable, and clearly in need of a tight leash”.
But Diamond Bob is a rich,powerful banker; and so crook or not, the question has not even been raised thus far by anyone in authority as to what charges (if any) he might face.
David Archibald holds, I’d imagine, many views miles across the spectrum of polemics from mine. But this isn’t left v right, it’s right v wrong. It is a stain upon British Justice and a disgrace of which we should all – regardless of political affiliation or social class – be ashamed.
The Slog 