24th AUGUST 75AD POMPEI TIME

A couple of weeks in a warm climate where the habits and requirements of a normal lifestyle are laid aside for the indulgencies associated with retirement do not change the cycle of domestic happenings even when "roaming" is turned off and TV stations offer very limited choice in the English language.  

The recent domestic happening of interest to those associated however loosely with the legal and criminal justice system must be the announcements by the justice secretary of proposed changes to sentencing of offenders driven by the chronic shortage of prison places.  If ever there was an example of the political tail wagging the political dog this must surely be it.  

In 2010 the then justice secretary Kenneth Clarke was exuberantly proclaiming to his cabinet colleagues that he was first in line to declare his department`s budget cut of 23.8%.  Amongst his 11 Tory successors to 2024 was the thoroughly incompetent Chris Grayling 2012-2015 who emasculated the probation service. During the Tories period in office there were 8 Home Secretaries 2010-2024 including the ineffective Theresa May  and the proof that there really is truth in *Peter`s Principle;  the misbegotten Liz Truss. 5 Prime Ministers have ruled over us between 2010 and 2024 including the "I wannabe king of the world" Boris Johnson and the pair of aforesaid home secretaries promoted beyond their competence.  Is it any wonder that our nation is in its current mess. 

But it`s not only justice where good sense has been sacrificed to government  hope for sympathetic headlines in the Daily Tale or Daily Excess. Health, Education and Defence have experienced similar salami slicing of capital, expertise and predictive abilities.  Failure and collapse within policing and prisons and all stops in between has been apparent for 15 years.  Figures associated with crime and offending have been as statistically valid as counting the number of angels on a pinhead.  This was known by every single person and department within Whitehall and Petty France.  Covid exposed the reality beneath the chimera. 

From bringing up children to the threat of nuclear war deterrence is a common factor for most eventualities except in the thought processes of the MOJ.  Shoplifting less than £200 value?  No problem.  Bike theft? No problem? Car theft? No problem. Phone theft? No problem.  Make a supposedly offensive remark or be critical of an employee and face police arrest or a tribunal.  Criticise even in studied language immigration or those who would change the fundamentals of being British and there is a risk of being denounced as a racist.  And for the most vociferous of "progressives"  if one agrees with J.K. Rowling`s opinions of the transgender debate a fate worse than death should befall the individual.

It is becoming ever more obvious that the current government will fail. From 2019 and Boris Johnson`s 43.6% vote share with 365 seats and Keir Starmer`s 411 seats with 33.7% it is apparent that the British people find little hope when changing their vote from the devil to the deep blue sea.  The failure to deter, arrest, convict and incarcerate offenders is now deeply ingrained in the politics of the electorate. No longer is the failure of an outdated concept of providing health provision allowing for reasoned debate.  "Our NHS" has become a totem or religious relic from an age when this country basked in the fading glory of king and empire.  Populism results in a combination of offering socialism where it suits to nationalism when it appeals.  It is the public response to a political situation where the previously normal choices of right and left have been left behind.  It is like a previously considered dormant volcano about to erupt.  It is spontaneous and destructive.  It is now in the UK August 24th 75AD Pompei Time.  

*PETER`S PRINCIPLE

The Peter Principle states that people in an organization or company will be promoted until they are no longer qualified, filling that organisation or company with incompetent leadership.

PAST PRESENT AND FUTURE

Despite having had all the vaccinations known to the NHS for those like me of a certain age the flu virus is taking its toll of my patience.  I hope that a couple of weeks in the sunnier, warmer climes of Greece will return to me a taste for good food and wine to be savoured outdoors followed by a fine Havana cigar.  

Accordingly there will be no updates here until such time that the future has become just a fading memory.   This blog has posts since 2013 and so I hope to add to them by the end of May. 

RETIRED MAGISTRATES CAN BE SEEN BUT NOT HEARD

For some magistrates being able to metaphorically strut around squawking their JP status like a peacock wooing a peahen is their primary interest in serving our justice system.  On my bench which numbered about 300 I would estimate by conversations over many years perhaps 10% were not unhappy to demonstrate their "status" as being what they considered a perk of the job. For my own part even my neighbours didn`t know I was a magistrate until it became known after my retirement which brings me to the position of magistrates when they leave the bench at 75 or younger as might be the case.  They are automatically moved on to the supplemental list.  This transition allows them continual use of the suffix JP but removes virtually all the previous powers and privileges.  

Magistrates on the supplemental list may not:

• sit in a magistrates’ court to adjudicate on cases
• sign summonses or warrants, including search warrants
• be a member of any committee or any other body as a magistrate
• take part in the election of chairman or deputy chairman of any bench
• attend any formal or business meeting of their former bench
• countersign an application for a shotgun or firearms licence
• sign off statutory declarations.

However, and it`s a big however, such retired magistrates are still subject to all the do`s and don`ts issued by the Lord Chancellor.  There must be very many who are unaware of those prohibitions or choose to ignore them as being irreplaceable enhancements to their own egos. Such was the case of Reverend Terence Young JP.  

There are amongst all occupations and/or professions those whose ego outperforms their abilities.  They do not have to be retired to be caught in the spotlight.  They are all around us their self aggrandisement to be pricked before harming those around them. 

THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF WOKE?

Trump was grandstanding of course but his tirade against Diversity Equity and Inclusion [DEI]  was met here by the predictable as predictable for the predictable.  Those who rode the equine woke spectre of all things achieved and yet to be destroyed like the horsemen of the apocalypse  were aghast.  Those on the right accustomed of late to being called out as racist if they referred to Flopsy as a white rabbit felt at long last that finally the world or a good part of it was beginning to see the truth that woke is a chimera; it has no reality just as a woman now by the grace of the supreme court can be legally said not to have a penis now, not ever.  Those employed in the private sector are now on prozac awaiting a possible appointment with their HR departments.  The civil service, however, is almost a law unto itself.  And His Majesty`s Courts and Tribunal Service  is a flag bearer for woke. The costs and numbers of those employed in the organisation who have as their main or associated function the study, policy input, activity and implementation of DEI over the last five years have recently been revealed in a Freedom of Information request the results of which are copied below.  I make no comment on these numbers but assume some readers will make their own conclusions.