For the vast majority of car owners for whom the legal system is no more impacting on their lives than when they have gone through a red light or been stranded on the yellow criss cross pattern when a major road meets another at a right angle the Appeal Court decision on Close Brothers Motor Finance probably was of little concern. If it isn`t now it soon will be. Indeed for me it brought back memories of when I bought my current car a few years ago. It was a new model and I had waited about six months for delivery so I was pleased to attend the dealership to complete the transaction. I had negotiated what I thought and still consider a good deal. When I told the salesman I intended to pay the balance due in cash I thought in my naivety he would be pleased but no, his face dropped. He then spent at least fifteen minutes explaining why by taking their finance deal I would be doing myself a favour. In fact he could drop that negotiated price by a further £1,000. When I insisted on making that immediate bank transfer from my phone he made his final pitch; you can, he assured me, cancel the deal after one month, pay the balance due which would be based on a loan over only a single month and be quids in. I was unconvinced and replied that I would buy elsewhere if he persisted. Only now reading of the high commissions Close Brothers and others paid car retailers to push loans their way do I understand that salesman`s persistence.
Flags and their implication when being used outwith their historical associations to assert political supremacy are once more in the headlines. Rarely has a foreign flag especially for a non existing country been paraded worldwide in support of terrorism when combined with chanting that a country which does exist should be removed from the map. When the flag involved is the Union Jack being flown or not flown in Northern Ireland the issue can be volatile. The grey area between patriotism and nationalism becomes even less definable. Whatever the religious divides, that province is within the United Kingdom and in this month commemorating November 11th 1918 the union flag should be a symbol of just that: unity. However it took an order from a High Court judge for that red, white and blue totem to be flown permanently at war memorials in Ards and North Down.
Often politicians proclaim with pride the independence of the British judiciary within our unwritten constitution. I beg, as a humble retired lowly magistrate, to disagree. On 23rd April 2020 I posted of my own experience of interference with my independence after the 2011 riots. It seems that the rioting of August has initiated a similar instruction to the police and professional judiciary; mass arrests, immediate court appearances and deterrent sentences. Apparently the Court of Appeal is not quite in step with the tune that the executive played. Long might that continue although like all organisations it is as strong only as its weakest link which snapped under the pressure surrounding Covid.
Magistrates are often blamed for decisions which are deemed unlawful. As they are constituted as non legal professionals although many younger members of that world strangely are accepted in a lay capacity, the office of legal advisor is present at every sitting to ensure the correct functioning of the bench. When a bench is accused of acting unlawfully rarely is there any public comment that the legal advisor has been less than diligent. A recent case where matters reached adjudication at the High Court illustrates that those like the many intelligent inquisitive colleagues I met and learned from at my court are now no longer to be found in such numbers. Frequently my colleagues and I ordered documents eg wage slips, bank accounts, Inland Revenue statements, end of year accounts from Chartered Accounts etc when dealing with offenders confronting what would be high financial penalties relative to their unverified claimed income. Such actions were in our joint opinions common sense; a personal attribute required on my application form in 1997. That requirement was deemed unnecessary about 20 years ago.
And finally today a comment subsequent to my post last week; prolific shop theft as exemplified by Benjamin Gothard-Smith at Isle of Wight Magistrates Court. The brutal truth is that our current system cannot cope with the likes of him and the hundreds of thousands of others similar, the vast majority of whom are addicted to alcohol and/or drugs. I have long advocated a way forward where I am realistic enough to know there is no will. [for fuller information type "workhouse" in search box] A medical pathway through a modern interpretation of the Victorian workhouse would offer hope to offenders as well as a society which has tolerated their sleeping on the streets. Attention could then be focussed on those immigrants who are fast becoming an unwelcome addition to this country already striving to hold together its disparate elements under the aforementioned Union Jack.
