Home Office Proposal - Post Charge questionning

All well and good this idea BUT:

a) The Police have had to improve their questionning to make sure they have enough prior to charge. This proposed change would allow them to get lazy and just ask for a post charge interview. That is not efficient.

b) The whole reason for stooping this practice 24 years ago was to stop abuse and oppressive questionning etc.

c) The most important impact will be this; They legal services commission will have to completely change the fee structure for solicitors attending at Police Stations. At the the moment it is all fixed fee. But if solicitors have to keep coming back for post charge interviews as part of the fixed fee then only one thing will happen. Criminal solicitors cannot take such a loss of income (it is hard enough as it is). Therefore they will simply refuse to attend or tell the client to no comment via phone. This will not be in the interests of justice.

I doubt this has been thought about but it willbe a big problem.

Finally remember that police can re interview post charge at the moment but only if they have a very good reason. (surely that is the best approach).

The Polls - The nightmare continues

ConservativeHome - "The Tories remain well ahead in the latest YouGov survey for The Daily Telegraph. CCHQ insist there is no room for complacency and that's one of the reasons there was annoyance at Eric Pickles for his recent suggestion that it was "impossible" for Labour to win the next election."

How many months has the lead been around this mark for now? Must be 5 or 6 at least. Brown is absolutely finished. His personal ratings are still the worst for any primeminister ever and any hope of recovery is going to be scuppered by the economy. The Tories need to maintain a steady course and be the viable alternative. Yes more concrete policies are needed but not yet. (Labour would only nick them and then implement them abysmally).


Plus this is mid term polling and the Tories always do better at election time so we could add on a few more percentage points on to the above.

However the fact that bondary changes will affect the majority of seats next time means calculating possible majorities is virtually impossible and futile because nominal figures are tricky.

Still another 20 point lead spells continued gloom in the Brown Bunker.

Russian Bear

Everyone has come to the view that the Russians have gone nuts and will aggressively defend "their" sphere of influence. Certainly the Georgia intervention was a case of protecting such a thing. Well I understand to an extent their position:

The Russian State has always considered itself as a strong man. It has had to put up with 15 to 20 years of weakness when the West could expand its sphere of influence. Now the Russians are back. They have Oil and Gas and can throw their weight around. They feel the EU and NATO are messing in their backyard and they can't understand why Europe would take that risk. In the Ruskies minds all they have to to is threaten to turn the gas and oil taps off and all hell will break loose in Europe. They are right off course.

So it will all end in stalemate. Europe will bluster but do nothing and Russia will not do anything so overtly aggressive again in the near future. The reason why? Because if Russia did carry our their threat to turn the taps off it would hurt them as well as us. (just look at the recent performance of their stock market - it has dived).

So really all we have learnt recently is that Russia will not be "pushed around" by the West. They are back on the map. If they went further and intervened elsewhere or turned off the taps it would be a massive gamble and I can't see what incentive they would have for doing it.

(Still doesnt help Georgia. A sovereign nation - that situation requires a UN peacekeeping force and gradual transition back to normality and the official forming of semi autonmous regions).

We shall see.

Mugger Mugabe - Exit Now Mate

Shouted at, heckled, booed and chanted at during the state opening of Parliament< Mugabe left annoyed and shocked. He could not believe what had just happened. That showed to me just how hopelessly out if touch he is and what a complete state of denial he was in.

However he refuses to go. He is playing all his cards in the power sharing talks. Every year people predict he will go. Yet he is still there clinging to power as are the military chiefs that keep so close to him.

At 84 maybe it will be infirmity that will get him in the end.

PS. Come on Thabo Umbeki. Keep the pressure up and prove that your queit diplomacy was the best way after all.

Tower Hamlets and Ramadan

Stories about none Muslim Councillors not being able to eat during Council meetings while Ramadan is on are not helpful at all for community cohesion. Tower Hamlets cannot have any idea about the upset this kind of story causes nationwide. It grates with the majority of people and creates negative views.

If not true they should get out there and say so, now. If true they should change policy rapidly.

The pres should also be careful how they report stories like this. They must make sure it is true and report it neutrally.

Darling - “arguably the worst” slump in 60 years

Not a helpful comment for Brown and the Government, but is it true? If you brought a house a couple of years ago then you are not happy now; paying energy bills and putting petrol in the car is painful now; if you were starting to take your pension now then you will be getting about 20% less than a few years ago;the banks have yet to work through the credit crisis fallout; so mortgages and house sales are still low; unemployment is expected to top 2 million by Christmas; the Poles are going home, is that a sign?; the high street claims to be in agony; personal debt is still enormous and the Treasury is skint.

Yes there is a problem but at this stage its not the worst thing to happen in sixty years. The fact he said anything is key. Darling clearly wants to brace us for the future and make sure he is not blamed for it.

It is almost unprecedented for a Chancellor to speak out like this. So the presure is beginning to tell. Brown will also be pissed off that Darling has said the voters are "pissed off" with NuLabour. It just does not help and diverts attention from the economic relaunch plan. That plan seems No.10 driven and may be another reason for Darling speaking out as he and the Treasury are being sidelined in the process.