Day-by-day, our liberty is reduced and we become more of a police state. Our traditional right to a properly constructed trial when accused of any criminal offence is being eroded and our ability to present a defence is being taken away.
There has been much discussion in recent times about the introduction of so-called 'jury-less' trials, when a judge would sit alone and pronounce on the evidence presented, and the Government is pressing ahead with plans to remove a defendant's right to appoint a solicitor of his or her choosing; in future, it's proposed that the state will 'provide' appropriate legal support from a panel of 'quality assured' lawyers. This will inevitably lead to a poorer service for defendants and, quite probably, to a huge increase in miscarriages of justice.
Added to this assault on our justice system, it's also been announced that, with effect from 1st July, the police will be empowered to issue many more 'fixed penalty notices' for a range of supposed driving offences and that the scale of such penalties will also rise dramatically. The published rationale behind this move is that it will render swifter justice and will take pressure off of the courts; the reality is that drivers will be subject to highly arbitrary judgements by the police. The vast majority of transgressors will escape any penalty as their offences simply won't be seen, while the unfortunate few who are noticed will be landed with fines and penalty points against which they will have no real opportunity to mount any defence. The position of the police as accuser, judge and jury will place defendants in an impossible position; failure to accept a fixed penalty will result in a court appearance and the certainty of an even greater penalty, given that the word of a police officer is always accorded greater weight than that of the defendant in such cases.
One has to wonder why it is that our supposedly libertarian lawmakers believe such an approach to enforcement to be any kind of justice. The police are already empowered to issue fixed penalties for offences such as using a mobile 'phone while driving and failing to wear a seatbelt; why not wearing a seatbelt should be a criminal offence has always been a mystery to me as the only person in danger is the offender. As for using a mobile 'phone whilst driving, the introduction of this as an offence seems to have had no effect whatsoever on its incidence and drivers of every kind of vehicle can be seen breaking this particular law every day of the week and in great numbers; there simply aren't enough police around to do more than catch one offender in many thousands, which makes this law, along with other similar ones, largely unenforceable and utterly unjust.
Given the obvious and serious shortcomings in all of this, the planned increase of fixed penalty fines for a range of offences from £40 to £100 is surely inexplicable. The intention to widen the range to include 'offences' such as 'hogging the middle lane' which might, in future, be treated as being as serious an offence as 'tail-gating', is ludicrous. What criteria will police use when deciding that a particular driver is 'guilty' of such an offence ? Will they simply be encouraged to increase conviction rates by having an occasional campaign against motorists unfortunate enough to be on the road on every third Thursday, or every Friday 13th ? How long will it be before offenders are simply identified from the use of cameras ?
This is not justice and it is not right. Laws that are not fully enforceable are bad laws and it is not for the police to determine guilt or innocence. The extension of this power to them is a frightening step further along the path to an authoritarian police state and should be opposed at every turn.
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