The "Common Sense of the Jury"...

You're probably aware that the ex-wife of ex-Lib Dem Minister Chris Huhne is on trial for allegedly helping him get out of a speeding ban.

Huhne has pleaded guilty to the charge. Ms Pryce has accepted that she took the point, but is basing her defence on the rare "martial coercion", i.e. she was forced to do it by her husband.

After being out for 14 hours, the jury have been discharged after being unable to reach even a 10-2 verdict.

Before that happened, they provided a list of questions to the Judge.  I don't have a problem with Juries asking question of the case, and it happens regularly, but in this case there has been massive problems.

The BBC have the questions and his responses, which can be summarised as:

1. It's a term in plain English
2. [He must have been lost for words, given the question]
3. [Sensible question]
4. See #1
5. WTF?! You can't simply make stuff up!
6. There's an presumption of innocence, not guilt. The Prosecution have to convince you, not the Defendant
7. See #6
8. See #5
9. Do you actually know what the job of a Jury is?
10. That's completely irrelevant

So that's 1 sensible question out of 10. Oh dear!

From reading the Judge's responses, he must have been thinking to himself "Do these people know anything?!". After all, he is quoted as saying they showed a "fundamental deficit in understanding" of what they were supposed to do.

I guess this shows the basic flaw in jury trials: they're based on an assumption that the ordinary member of the public is reasonably intelligent. Clearly this assumption was invalid to at least some of the people that had been chosen to serve.

Of course, this makes you wonder if other juries have had similar questions, and if so, how have they decided that issue.

I still think that Jury trials are a good thing to have, even if it is for little else than for having the ability to pretty much turn around and say "I don't care if he would be guilty, this is complete bollocks".

There will be a re-trial starting next Monday.  Hopefully the next lot will do a better job. Tweet

Training for the future

Over the past few weeks the government has made some big announcements on spending on public infrastructure.

They've published their plans for a second high-speed train line that will run from London up to Birmingham after which it splits to go to Manchester or Leeds. This will be called "High-Speed 2" (HS2).

As far as I can tell, it is needed because the trains out of London Euston, up to Birmingham and the north-west, will be full in about 20 years' time. Euston currently has lots of long-distance trains (Virgin Trains); lots of local trains (London Overground) and lots of trains-that-are-not-quite-local-but-not-quite-long-distance (London Midland). The train line itself also has lots of freight trains. In about 20 years' time there won't be enough space for all of them, and the idea is to build a separate train line for the Virgin Trains, which will create more space for the other lot.  It'll also make my journeys back home to Lancashire much quicker.

It seems to be one of those all-too-rare occasions where plans for being made for the future, and also a good idea.

Separately there appear to be formal plans for a "Crossrail 2". Yes, that thing that's currently ripping up numerous bits of central London is likely to gain a younger brother or sister.

The basic plan is for a tunnel from outside Wimbledon that will lead to London Victoria; Tottenham Court Road; Euston-King's Cross-St. Pancras; and Angel then up through north-east London in two directions.

Apparently it will solve a lot of transport issues in London and the south-east: it'll remove lots of local trains from Waterloo, creating room for longer-distance ones; and will help the Victoria and Piccadilly lines, as well as creating space on the trains in north London. It'll also make massive reductions in travel times across London.

TfL have previously said that it should be built with HS2, but now it seems that it is essential to build it, otherwise Euston won't cope with the amount of extra people that HS2 will bring in.

As an alternative, TfL propose starting it at Wimbledon and only having the trains go in one direction after Angel.

Hopefully it will be built - I currently live in one of the areas that would stand to benefit from it, and given that I struggle to squeeze on my train in the morning I fully support the plans - and there's a good chance given that both TfL and Network Rail both support it. The only down side is that it is unlikely to do so for about 20 years, i.e. when the HS2 Manchester and Leeds bits open... Tweet

Nothing but Job-Killing Regulations and Red Tape!

Just over a year ago I did a post on how the UK's economy was being strangled to death by "job-killing regulations and red tape", and how the Tories were justified in their plans to reduce claims for unfair dismissal. Or, much more accurately, how such claims are a complete load of rubbish.

The sources have since published updated versions of their reports, and I thought it'd be a good idea to do a follow-up post.

In 2011, we had the following:

• World Bank "Ease of Doing Business" - #4;
• Heritage Foundation "Index of Economic Freedom" - #16;
• Fraser Institute "Economic Freedom of the World" - #8;
• World Economic Forum "Global Competitiveness Report" - #10;
• World Economic Forum "Global Enabling Trade Report" - #17.

Overall, between these 5 reports of differing political leanings, the UK ranked #11.

In 2013, these have changed to:

• World Bank "Ease of Doing Business" - #7;
• Heritage Foundation "Index of Economic Freedom" - #14;
• Fraser Institute "Economic Freedom of the World" - #12;
• World Economic Forum "Global Competitiveness Report" - #8;
• World Economic Forum "Global Enabling Trade Report" (2012) - #11

Overall, these 5 reports suggest that the UK ranks #10 in how easy it is to run a business.

Once again, we can clearly see that the UK is not a bureaucracy-ridden hell-hole as some may claim...

So, how does the government respond to this clearly appalling situation? Well, it seems that they are trying to scrap s. 47 Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 which would make it more difficult to sue your employers for breaches of health and safety laws.

Given what the reports say, I'd thought I should give the government some free advice: there's better ways to help the struggling UK economy; your plans appear to be simply an excuse to push through ideas that will do little other than screw people. 

Tweet

D-Notice Album of the Year Award 2012

Ever since I started this blog I've done an almost-annual round-up of the CDs that I've purchased over that year.

For the past two years the round-up has been a bit lacking due to a combination of apathy and lack of time. In fact it seems that I didn't do one at all for 2011!

It's unlikely that I'll do one for 2012 either, but instead will link to my Spotify playlist that contains tracks from those CDs and my random tracks of 2012 one. I'll also link to my 2011 CD playlist and the 2011 random tracks one given that they don't seem to have put on here.

Will I do one for 2013? Who knows? At the very least you'll get two Spotify playlists out of it: my 2013 CDs and the year's random tracks that I've enjoyed.

You should also check out my Soundcloud feed for other stuff that I've liked. In fact that's probably a better option because I seem to be updating that much more frequently that the random tracks one on Spotify.

As for the coveted "D-Notice Album of the Year Award for 2012", that goes to Grimes - Visions for her weird electro-Kate Bush album. Its the one I've listened to the most and it remains as enjoyable as the first time it put it on.

The Award for 2011 goes to Anna Calvi for her self-titled album, with the usual disqualifications for Radiohead and the Fiery Furnaces' Eleanor Freidberger on grounds of personal bias.

The 2010 award, which again it seems that I didn't actually hand out, goes to Yeasayer - Odd Blood.

They join such lucky recipients as Arcade Fire (2005); The Knife (2006); Von Sudenfed and Battles (2007; joint award); The Bug and Hercules & Love Affair (2008; joint award) and The Horrors (2009). Tweet

Stuck in a Rutland

There was an interesting post in the New Statesman today: that Rutland County Council are planning on suing some of its critics for libel. Apparently they're being targeted by anti-corruption campaigners. *plays tiny violin*

They have obtained legal advice saying that due to s. 1 Localism Act 2011, they now have the power to sue people for defamation.

As the piece points out, the advice, especially para. 11, seems to be wrong.

Basically it boils down to an interpretation of the phrase in s. 1(1) that councils have the "power to do anything that individuals generally may do". The solicitors say that this overrides a 1993 House of Lords case that banned local government from making defamation claims on public policy grounds. The article suggests that the legal advice has misinterpreted both the case and the Act.

The House of Lords case has a great quote:

There are, however, features of a local authority which may be regarded as distinguishing it from other types of corporation, whether trading or non-trading. The most important of these features is that it is a governmental body. Further, it is a democratically elected body, the electoral process nowadays being conducted almost exclusively on party political lines. It is of the highest public importance that a democratically elected governmental body, or indeed any governmental body, should be open to uninhibited public criticism. The threat of a civil action for defamation must inevitably have an inhibiting effect on freedom of speech.

I'm not a libel lawyer, but - given that the advice contains basic and sloppy errors, and has a general lack of actual quotations from the House of Lords judgment, and only make very brief reference to it - it seems that they told they client what they wanted to hear.  Oddly, they also seem to suggest in para. 17 that the Council "send the heavies round"...

Para. 11 of the advice also says:

"a local authority is now dependant on its public reputation for its ability to secure external funding, to attract competitors for the provision of services, or to recruit outstanding officers"

I would advise that threatening people with libel claims who raise allegations of corruption is not a good way for a local authority to maintain its reputation...  Also, the Lords judgment does actually refer to this situation, and so clearly has taken it into account.

Anyway, the Council had a public meeting tonight at which they apparently voted in favour of libel proceedings but deferred a vote on whether to actually issue them. They also seems to have voted to indemnify the councillors in any proceedings for harassment.

I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens next...

As an separate issue, we have Eric "Slendertone" Pickles for such sloppy drafting of the Act that Rutland base their stance on.

UPDATE: Rutland have put out a statement on the vote. They confirm they'll be making harassment claims and that the council will indemnify its councillors' costs, but deferred a vote on the libel claim. Tweet

2012 in video clips

Hello again!

Have you missed me?

There's no real reason for a lack of posts other than a combination of work being busy and a general lack of enthusiasm.

Anyway, as it's the end of the year I tend to do a round-up of the various albums I've bught this year.

I may do one, bu as yet I've not actually decided whether I will.

In the meantime, I thought I'd link to some videos clips that I've enjoyed over the past few months.

First of all there's the Olympics Opening Ceremony, which I consider was the best show/TV programme/artistic achievement of the year.

I also consider that the Paralympics Opening Ceremony is worth watching too.

The less said about the closing ceremonies the better though...

Given the resounding success of both the Olympics and Paralympics, there's supposed to be a channel launching that will deal with the more obscure Olympics events, that you never see on TV.  It was due to start this month. However, this deadline has not yet been met, and probably will not be met, but hopefully it'll start in 2013.

My favourite bits of the Olympics themselves are Nicola Adams' performance in the Women's Boxing final, where she demolished the #1 seed (section 2), and that 45-minute period in which Jessia Ennis; Greg Rutherford; and Mo Farah won their golds (from section 18 onwards).

My favourite clips of the Paralympics were when George Osborne was booed, and the performance of Richard Whitehead in the men's T42 200m. My favouriter overall performance was from David Weir who won 4 gold medals in 4 different wheelchair races (800m, 1500m, 5000m and marathon). I'd also recommned the men's F40 (dwarf) javelin in which the top 5 people all beat the previous world record, which itself was extended seven times!

Away from London, the biggest, and most important event of the year was the US Presidental election.  There's 2 clips that I like, which are more concerned with certain people's reactions on Fox News to the then-still-pending outcome: this from the Daily Show that has one of my all-time favourite quotes; and a similar one that gives other clips from Fox News.

Like I said, I may do a music one, but if not this will tide you over! Tweet

UK's credit rating is downgraded

One thing that the government has said is that it is making big cutbacks to public spending so that Britain will keep its "AAA"-rating with various credit rating agencies.

Well, last night this happened:

Rating agency Egan-Jones cut the credit rating for the United Kingdom on Monday to AA-minus with a negative outlook from AA, the latest in a string of European sovereign downgrades from the agency.

"Unfortunately, we expect that the UK's debt/GDP (ratio) will continue to rise and the country will remain pressed."

We were downgraded, due to the impact of the government's economic policies. By their own standards, they've failed.*

Of course, whether it is worth being obsessed with having the highest rating is another matter entirely. According to Paul Krugman, a downgrade such as this makes little difference.

* I accept that we've not been downgraded by this lot from a AAA-rating, but the downgrading itself is what counts Tweet