Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Blair on taking more innocent peoples money

Remember that "innocent until proven guilty thing"? Blair, it seems, doesn't believe in it anymore. Talk Politics has more on the subject, but essentially Blair wants the power to take money from people before they're convicted:
There is a slight constitutional problem with this suggestion posed by the English Bill of Rights of 1689 which reads:
Blair doesn't think due process is needed any more, he doesn't think it's working:
He told BBC News: "You cannot deal with this type of crime by ordinary methods or by ordinary court processes. I genuinely believe that. I have tried it, it doesn't work."
Um, Tony? If it's not working, it's your fault! You can't blame the Tories anymore, you can't blame the people you took over from. You've had 8 years to get it to work, that's your job.

So, instead of making the system, as duly constituted in the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution, work, he wants to rip it up and start again. Year Zero anyone?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This would of course represent another revolution.

Anonymous said...

And, if I remember rightly, he's also intending to extend similar powers to other areas.

In a speech about a month or two ago he was speaking about tackling yob culture and suchlike, and said he'd be bring in powers so that if the police see people committing certain crimes, they can smack on a fine that you have to go to court and prove your innocence on, rather than the other way around.

I can't remember the exact details on that one though.

chris said...

New Labour has been against the presumption of innocence for quite some time. The presumption of guilt was built into RIPA all the way back in 1999.

chris said...

P.S. The Hogs Head (huge place near smiths?) would be find for me, I could easily wonder down after work one evening.

MatGB said...

HogsHead works for me.

Wasn't following stuff too closely in '99, first year undergrad, it's all a little hazy, before I get home and do some research, what's RIPA?