THAT WAS THE YEAR THAT WAS

Another year is about to end and another to begin.  And so the cycle continues. Magistrates are now but a pawn on this government`s chessboard.  It would appear that the principle of local justice for local people by local people is merely camouflage netting for providing ways and means of processing as many defendants as quickly as possible.  The Single Justice Procedure exposed in all its ignominy a few months ago is now but a forgotten pimple on the face of a rotten and rotting justice system.  

At the other end of the judicial hierarchy judicial incompetence, inefficiency, bias, prejudice or add a suitable noun from many, is kept under wraps as much as possible.  Of course there is the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office available to supposedly expose the misdemeanours of judicial office holders but in reality it`s usually only the erring spratts that are seen in daylight; the bewigged mackerels are spoken to behind closed doors.  Towards this year`s end Mr Justice Williams in the High Court ruled that the judges involved in the family court proceedings concerning murdered child Sara Sharif should remain anonymous as should all those professionally involved in safeguarding the child from her birth when she was assessed even then as being vulnerable.  His argument that public exposure would put the safety of all those involved at risk is moot and is being appealed. The machinations of secret disciplinary processes for senior judges should be of concern to all open minded people who are fearful that our individual freedoms are on the salami slicer. 

When Ireland, its people and its government appear to be in the vanguard of castigating Israel = Zionists = Jews it is not a little disturbing to read allegations that Mr Justice Robert Lowry a former chief justice of Northern Ireland "dislikes Jews as much as he dislikes Catholics". Perhaps now that Catholics and Protestants can live in some semblance of peaceful c0-existance the few Jews remaining in the province can continue to escape the hate against them propagated by so many supposed "progressive" western societies.




Hardly a week goes by without a police officer somewhere in England being given the boot. As far as the Metropolitan Police Commissionaire; he forecast earlier this year that there would not be a week without one of his officers being disciplined. He was optimistic. Latest statistics on disciplinary activity against police can be described as: take your pick of appalling, revealing, understated, expected, disturbing, surprising or add your own. The College of Policing provides an insight into how our supposedly wonderful police service is failed by some of those at the top.

Is the glass bringing in 2025 half empty or half full?