Saturday 6 November 2010

Woolas: Judge for Yourself

Head of Legal links to the judgment.  You might like to read it, say after lunch on Sunday if it's wet.  I did wonder if the misrepresentations had not been so racially sensitive Woolas would have been whacked quite so hard.  But then he was an immigration minister, he must have been up to speed on the greater weight given to politically incorrect offensiveness as opposed to mere offensiveness.

I wondered too whether if the winner had been thrown out for offending, shouldn't the runner-up be seated automatically?  After all, having to run the race again in different circumstances and against other candidates hardly rights the wrong done at the original election.  Perhaps British justice isn't in the business of righting wrongs.

4 comments:

Elby the Beserk said...

HG,

Personal experience of British justice over the past couple of years has made it quite clear to me that righting wrongs is not longer any of its business; rather the protection vested interests.

hatfield girl said...

I can't remember what happened for Phineas Finn, Elby. The election court overturned the result but did he have to re-fight the seat and was returned with a large vote of support, or was he seated automatically? Certainly it was portrayed as pretty effortless. Which it won't be for the Liberal candidate seeing as the electorate is so different from Trollope's day.

Me, myself, personally, I think (as they say) the Liberal should be seated without further ado. And the candidate who lied, knowing he was lying (also as they say) should be required to hand over all of our monies he has been enjoying since last May.

There's a branch of legal studies that does 'What is the purpose of law and the nature of justice?' isn't there? I hope there is. And I hope it feeds into practice and judgments.

Nomad said...

I agree with you HG. In any other race or competition if the winner is found to be cheating he/she is automatically disqualified and the runner up promoted to first. I fail to see why this case should be any different; plus it would save an awful lot of money we do not appear to have at present.

Odin's Raven said...

If they checked the lies and postal voting frauds carefully many more MP's would be unseated. If sleazy crooks were prevented from standing for election - there'd be a shortage of politicians!
Labour corrupted all the institutions of government to promote political correctness and personal interests. Britain is now sliding down the international table of perceived corruption, currently at number 20 apparently, and closing on Italy and Rwanda.