Libel Laws

I'm always amazed how people talk about libel laws in this country, like they shouldn't exist.

The simple fact is that whether you're getting sued by McDonalds or a famous actress, being a lying cunt who lies about someone and damages their reputation or character deserves a bit of a pasting, metaphorically speaking. To wail that the law shouldn't exist and that you deserve some sympathy having lied about them is just absurd.

Which isn't to say that we don't need reform, and the most important thing is that justice is not deprived because of the threat of legal costs by richer parties, at which point it is not just, but a deliberate attempt to silence people by force. But that's the limit of it.

You Fucking Cockwipes

From This Is Surrey:-

A former soldier who handed a discarded shotgun in to police faces at least five years imprisonment for "doing his duty".

Paul Clarke, 27, was found guilty of possessing a firearm at Guildford Crown Court on Tuesday – after finding the gun and handing it personally to police officers on March 20 this year.

The jury took 20 minutes to make its conviction, and Mr Clarke now faces a minimum of five year's imprisonment for handing in the weapon.

An utter travesty of justice by the sounds of it. A badly worded law, police and CPS who want to raise their statistics and a judicial system that doesn't like jury nullification.

But I really do think the jury were also utter cockwipes in this case. You're going to take away a man's livelihood for 5 years for making what could best be described as an honest mistake? Had the police questioned him under caution about finding it, I'd understand. But it seems that there was no evidence presented of any criminal activity.

We need to have far more information given to juries about previous cases of jury nullification, where juries ignored the law and cleared people because the law was an ass and allowed the superior moral code to take precedent.