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Police: TV LICENSING SHOULD BE DECRIMINALISED

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The Justice of the Peace on the 11^th December 2019 at 12:32 - A Police Blog
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It seems, predictable as ever, Boris Johnson has come up with what he thinks might be a last minute inducement to secure more of the "grey" vote which tends to be more conservative than socialist. There is the possibility that over 75s will lose their "free" TV license next summer and he has hinted that he might tell the BBC to fund the freebie if it wants it to continue. With a maximum fine [rarely applied] for TV license evasion of £1000 appearing not to deter evasion by usually the poorest of pensioners he has mused on its abandonment. Last year there were 129,446 prosecutions for TV license evasion all of course in magistrates courts. It is exceedingly difficult to translate that number into meaningful statistics owing to the frequency of court closures undertaken since 2010 when the coalition government came to power. It seems that 162 of the 323 magistrates courts in England and Wales have shut – a loss of 50.2% of the estate. That translates as the remaining 161 having each 804 defendants annually to deal with...

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Police: IT`S NOT WHAT YOU SAY: IT`S WHAT YOU MEAN. SOME PERSONAL HUMOUR

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The Justice of the Peace on the 09^th December 2019 at 14:15 - A Police Blog
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How often in general discussion do we ask for a remark to be repeated because although we heard what was being said we hadn`t actually been listening. A rarely mentioned benefit of chairing a court is that one trains oneself to listen to everything that is said. As I was listening to a weather forecast on TV last week the forecaster began by saying,"Most of us will have a wet and windy night". Speaking to my wife for both our sakes I remarked,"Not me I hope."

Police: EARLY RELEASE

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The Justice of the Peace on the 03^rd December 2019 at 12:26 - A Police Blog
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The tragic circumstances last week involving a convicted terrorist who was freed early according to the law at the time in question has led to many claims and counter claims about which party was ultimately responsible. That debate conducted whilst the crime scene was still cordoned off and the relatives of those murdered still in shock was a disgusting spectacle which reinforced my and many others` opinions that we are being asked to vote for the most inadequate pair of party leaders in my adult lifetime. However the question of early release is one considered by every magistrates bench in every magistrates court every day of the week. On sentencing a miscreant to immediate custody the chairman of the bench after stating the exact term must tell the person in the dock that it is likely that s/he will be released on license after having served half the sentence aforestated. During my time when I was responsible for such pronouncements I made them through gritted teeth. It seemed to me then and it seems to me now that it made nonsense of the...

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Police: COMMENT CAN BE A TECHIE PROBLEM

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The Justice of the Peace on the 30^th November 2019 at 12:56 - A Police Blog
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It has come to my notice that accessing the comment feature via "no comments", itself a bit of a misnomer, can be impossible with some browsers; certainly I know that readers using Safari have had this problem. My advice is to use Chrome for this purpose if others fail.

Police: SENTENCING NEEDS UPDATING

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The Justice of the Peace on the 28^th November 2019 at 15:29 - A Police Blog
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It goes almost without saying but I`ll say it anyway; sentencing structures in this country are (to be polite) in need of drastic changes to meet with the drastic changes in society and its mores and the knowledge we now have on the sciences concerned with human behaviour. To add to the mix no government has been or will be willing to pay the £billions necessary to face the reality of what must be spent to halt the seemingly intractable problem of criminality and the measures required to protect society from such whether the criminality is on line fraud sometimes and sometimes not covered by insurance but where there is no physical harm or violence or gangs of rampaging youths with knives or guns in their hands as is now happening all over the country. Into the mix there is one fact which needs to be faced; about 70% of all acquisitive crime including harm to victims or property is committed by those addicted to alcohol and/or prohibited drugs. The definition of criminal offensiveness is now almost beyond parody. Religious...

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Police: THE WRONG SIDE IN MITIGATION

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The Justice of the Peace on the 25^th November 2019 at 14:15 - A Police Blog
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The tragic case of Harry Dunn, the motor cyclist who was killed by the wife of an American diplomat who was driving on the wrong side of the road has faded from the headlines but what will not have faded from the memories of all British drivers who have driven their own cars abroad is the fleeting moment when they too have momentarily dropped their concentration and found themselves on the wrong side of the road in continental Europe. It has happened to me and I got away with it. The demands from many quarters that she be extradited to face justice reminded me of a case I recollected from 2013.

« Je conduis habituellement à droite donc ma culpabilité dans cette affaire de conduite imprudente est moindre. » could have been the words of Alexis Fleury of Orleans in the Appeal Court six years ago. Or in English..........“I usually drive on the right so my culpability in this matter of careless driving is lessened”. And their Lordships agreed with him.

Whilst the principle and logic of the decision is immediately...

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Police: POLICE A DECADE ON

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The Justice of the Peace on the 22^nd November 2019 at 13:05 - A Police Blog
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Exactly ten years ago I blogged as copied below. It seems that despite all that has happened since then the police have learned little of what the public expects. Even with hindsight I don`t believe that there is a willingness for police to learn and that is as dire for us, the public, as it is for them.

ACPO and proposed police restructuring

by TheJusticeofthePeace@ 23. Nov. 2009. – 12:13:02

Sir Hugh Orde, president of ACPO wrote recently in The Times with his recommendations for a restructuring of policing. He appears to be taking not unnaturally a top down approach as opposed to giving consideration to the requirements at a local level where the vast majority of the population is not a victim or terrorism or cross border organised crime. He criticises, "people who are claiming to represent communities" who suggest that more police on the beat is what is required by offering ridiculous statistics about a patrolling officer rarely coming across a burglary being committed. In this statement he reveals his apparent indifference...

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Police: A STAIN ON OUR CIVILISATION

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The Justice of the Peace on the 18^th November 2019 at 14:42 - A Police Blog
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There are some human actions which are perfectly normal at most times for most people but which cross the threshold into offences under limited circumstances. Perhaps the most commonly committed offence in that category is rape. And that is why this offence is perhaps the most difficult to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. However to add to this apparent get out free card for offenders is the height of the bar at which the CPS sets its decision to prosecute. The criteria long held for any prosecution are to consider if is it in the public interest and is there a reasonable (>50%) chance of success. Such opinions are of course subjective but then so much of daily life is subjective. But with the decision to charge an individual with rape there is another ingredient thrown into the melting pot and that is the consideration of the statistics published on the success rate of rape prosecutions. To put that in perspective the success rate of all prosecutions in China is 99%. Does that indicate the superb ability of Chinese...

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Police: APPEAL BETWEEN VOTE LEAVE LTD Appellant And THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION Respondant 12th November 2019

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The Justice of the Peace on the 13^th November 2019 at 14:01 - A Police Blog
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Neutral Citation Number: [2019] EWCA Civ 1938
Case No: C1/2019/0150
IN THE COURT OF APPEAL (CIVIL DIVISION)
ON APPEAL FROM the High Court (Queen’s Bench Division)
Administrative Court
Mr Justice Swift
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL
Date: 12/11/2019
Before :
LORD JUSTICE UNDERHILL
(Vice-President of the Court of Appeal (Civil Division))
LORD JUSTICE SINGH and
LADY JUSTICE NICOLA DAVIES
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Between :
VOTE LEAVE LTD
Appellant
- and -
THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION
Respondent
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Mr Timothy Straker QC and Mr James Tumbridge (respectively instructed by, and of, Venner Shipley) for the Appellant
Mr Philip Coppel QC and Mr Ravi Mehta (instructed by the Treasury Solicitor) for the Respondent
Hearing date: 3rd October 2019
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Approved Judgment
Judgment Approved by the court for handing down. Vote Leave v Electoral Commission &...

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Police: MAGISTRATES AND MEDALS

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The Justice of the Peace on the 12^th November 2019 at 12:41 - A Police Blog
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On November 30th 2009 when this blog was but a fortnight old I wrote what is copied below. The MA forum to which reference is made was withdrawn about two years later because the powers that be considered it was giving members too much vocal power. But at this time of year when memories of my father in law`s generation and its mementos awarded as participants in that wartime struggle are so recent we have recently had so called "leadership magistrates" imposed upon the hierarchy of those who influence and control the magistracy. They were appointed by the Ministry of Justice initially with their names withheld at the same time as true elected magistrates representatives indicated by the Bench Chairman`s Forum was disbanded. Of course these "influencers" to use the modern term have no thought of any future honours which might be available in the future.

"My late father in law served in Burma during WW2 and like many of his generation never talked about his experiences until a year or two before his death when my son, his grandson,...

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Police: TV LICENSING SHOULD BE DECRIMINALISED

Police: IT`S NOT WHAT YOU SAY: IT`S WHAT YOU MEAN. SOME PERSONAL HUMOUR

Police: EARLY RELEASE

Police: COMMENT CAN BE A TECHIE PROBLEM

Police: SENTENCING NEEDS UPDATING

Police: THE WRONG SIDE IN MITIGATION

Police: POLICE A DECADE ON

Police: A STAIN ON OUR CIVILISATION

Police: APPEAL BETWEEN VOTE LEAVE LTD Appellant And THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION Respondant 12th November 2019

Police: MAGISTRATES AND MEDALS

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