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| Talisker |
on Sat 17 Sep 11, 12:47 PM to Talisker's blog.
Here we are, a free Western democracy. Preaching on the world stage about oppresive regimes and how they should change, and hey presto : as part of cost-cutting the Coalition has just voted to reduce or deny free access to Legal Aid for those in police custody.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/an...
Now this is wider than BDSM obviously. You may end up in the cells for any number of reasons.
Might be worth checking how your own MP voted in the division (I have not checked the Hansard record yet.
Not yet picked up by other papers as far as I can see.
I wonder what those fine lawyers at Stonewall are doing?
They have responded to the new proposals for equal marriage rights,but nothing about this legal access issue.
Liberty are aware of the issue, but nothing updated on their page recently.
http://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/human-rig...
I shall be writing to my MP (Labour) once I have checked the vote record, and asking for more information about this attack on civil liberties.
| 17 Sep 11, 1:55 PM sub55y UK(HA), 15 mths  |
Allways a good idea for government to attack the weakest and most vulnerable first and hope nobody notices! |
| 17 Sep 11, 6:05 PM misunderstoodslave UK(OL), 2 yrs |
Look at the scope reforms for family legal aid too. As of next year if you are a parent with no cash you won't be able to get a lawyer to fight for contact with your child. What a bunch of cunts. No votes in legal aid, of course, so it doesn't matter...
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| 18 Sep 11, 5:22 PM LittleMissEvil 4 yrs |
The lawyers at stonewall won't be interested unless it directly affects LGB people, and is going against equality for those people. This change doesn't per say discriminate against LGB people and non-LGB people so they may not focus on it specifically especially as they will probably be preparing for the public consultation on legalising Same Sex Civil Marriage. Personally I think some form of means testing for legal aid when it comes to Criminal cases should be in place. As it stands a millionaire charged with murder can get the government to provide them with a solicitor and a barrister to fight their case, when they are more than able to pay for those services themselves. As long as those who aren't able to pay for a lawyer get one free then surely this is a good move. One thing though that does bug me, is that most people think that there should be legal aid for everyone for all forms of legal disputes. But if you look at it the other way legal aid may pay the lawyer if they are lucky 50% of their normal wage for doing the legal aid work. Now how many other people would be happy to do their job to the highest standard for half the money? I suspect very few people, so why should a lawyer be expected to do that? It's in the water baby, it's in the pills that pick you up It's in the water baby, it's in the special way we fuck It's in the water baby, it's in your family tree It's in the water baby, it's between you and me - B.Molko |
