GRIST TO A POLITICAL MILL

Almost exactly a year ago the worst Lord Chancellor in the lifetime of most of us introduced the Criminal Courts Charge by which costs unrelated to means were imposed upon offenders.  Very few members, if any, of the senior judiciary voiced any concerns over the principle, implementation and probable ramifications of this  disastrous corruption of our legal system which until then had generally related financial punishment to ability to pay.  Personally I left the magistracy somewhat earlier than my birth date demanded so that I would not be required to make the iniquitous pronouncement.  It is thought that dozens of former colleagues reaching the end of their tenure resigned prematurely for exactly the same reason. On October 23rd last year I posited the question as to why opposition to the Charge had been muted. 

Now  has been revealed what any right thinking legally orientated individual could have predicted but didn`t about the collection of the Charge; It wasn`t (collected). The Facts Sheet, including the so called Impact Assessment of February 2015 reveal what all the mighty brain power of the Ministry of Justice had conjured up and told the general public including presumably the senior judiciary and newspaper editors. 

All the modelling, statistical analyses and forecasts must have cost hundreds of thousands of pounds.  We will never know whether Grayling actually read those 29 pages or whether some functionary within his department summarised it and other documents for him from a précis as was admittedly the case  during the Parliamentary Committee hearing on the scandal of Capita plc and interpreters not so long ago.   

With news that our prime minister`s late father has been caught up in a tax avoidance scandal, the Business Secretary being recalled from a jaunt to Australia aside from the underlying lying to frighten that`s going on within the Remain supporters faith in politicians is being eroded to such an extent as has not happened for a generation. All this is grist to the mill for those who would welcome mob or momentum rule upon us.