a pipe smoking dog posted:

A major fraud trial has just been stayed because the defendants can't afford proper representation because of the legal aid cuts to very high cost crimes, which basically means that it is now impossible for the crown to prosecute in complex cases. Really Chris Grayling should be forced to resign over this but I doubt it will even make the lunchtime news.

Also the defence barrister (working pro bono) is Alexander Cameron QC better known as the PMs brother.

quote:

A criminal prosecution is in danger of collapse because dozens of medical experts have declined to give advice about a defendant's fitness to stand trial following deep cuts in their fees.

The case, which cannot be identified, suggests growing resistance among professional witnesses to reduced legal aid rates, a stance that could undermine the criminal justice process.

Neurologists were, until December last year, being paid about £90 an hour but their fees have now been reduced to £72 an hour with no travelling expenses. Even though in this case they are being offered the older, higher fee, a total of 27 neurologists have declined to take on the legal aid work, according to lawyers representing the defendant.

Only one neurologist, who lives in Scotland, agreed to accept the case, but since his travel expenses will not be paid, the solicitors say, he cannot be recruited. The law firm, which has now applied for additional funding, says it has been told it can pay extra to secure the services of an expert witness but believes it would have no way of recovering any additional outlay.

quote:

The case, involving an allegation of violence, has been listed for a further hearing. The judge has indicated that the prosecution may not be able to go ahead if there is no medical report on the defendant's fitness to plead because he might not receive a fair trial.

quote:

Complaints about cuts in experts' fees surfaced during consultations over the regulations. Dr Chris Pamplin, editor of the UK register of expert witness, said: "The Ministry of Justice has had room-fulls of people warning them that this would happen [when the consultations took place].

"We asked the MoJ to focus on the way they used experts not just to slash their fees. They said that was too complicated and would cut what they pay. They have also cut cancellation fees and don't pay travel expenses. If they do the work on NHS time, the NHS gets the fee. But now it costs the NHS more to employ the doctors than it collects in fees. What has happened is entirely predictable."

David Cohen, of the Academy of Experts, which supports and trains professionals on how to give evidence in court, said he was aware many experts were declining to work for reduced legal aid fees.

"They slashed the rates by 10% a few years ago," he told The Guardian. "Now they have cut it by another 20%. If you want to have a criminal justice system it costs money.

"Most experts have charged a lower rate for their legal aid work. Older experts have a sense of duty; younger experts generally have a more modern approach where they think they should be paid a reasonable rate for the job.

"The majority of these [medical consultants] doing their ordinary job are charging £200 an hour or more." The Legal Aid Agency, he added, was also restricting the number of hours they would pay for any consultation.

Nicola Hill, president of the London Criminal Courts Solicitors Association, said: "This is another sign of the damaging impact of the MoJ knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing. Expert witnesses, with highly specialised medical knowledge, are crucial in many complex cases.

"They can make all the difference between a secure conviction and an unsafe one. If their goodwill is lost and they increasingly refuse to work at the much reduced legal aid rates, defendants are at risk of unsafe convictions, cases will collapse without guilt or innocence being proven and victims and their families will be denied the justice they deserve."

Kegluneq posted:

He's just released a (video) statement on Twitter in which he appears pretty contrite about the whole thing.

There's a world of difference between right wing tabloid criticism of the BBC and how Top Gear represents his attitude. It's very clearly played for laffs (like when Clarkson drives a tiny car into a BBC meeting on environmentalism filled with minorities) and is also self-deprecating.

While it's true that Top Gear's foreign adventures are usually based around them acting like tits and embarrassing themselves and Britain in general, they are actually pretty interesting as travelogues in their own right. They are also generally quite respectful of the people they meet.

big scary monsters posted:

Do you not feel that experts should be paid 'a reasonable rate for the job' then?

Xachariah posted:

If you have a selection of ingredients and toppings on par with Subway then I'm impressed. As it is to get my favourite I'd need to buy the bread, buy a pack of pepperoni, buy a packet of salami, buy the ham, get two kinds of cheese, get a bag of lettuce, chop up some green peppers, slice a cucumber and buy a bottle of hot sauce (that's not too mild/hot).

If everything cost a pound I'd lose £5-6 when I coulda just went to subway. I love Subway.

vodkat posted:

But you'll have to have sandwiches every day otherwise some of that food is going to go off.

Ddraig posted:

I'm conflicted. I do agree for the most part that public protection is one of the few valid reasons to incarcerate someone, but the brazen attitude and the fact that he got away with it for so long rubs me the wrong way. It's vengeful and irrational but, gently caress, for what he did and the lives he ruined it just isn't good enough.

El Scotch posted:

kapparomeo posted:

Given what they've been getting in the mail lately, mud-slinging is probably a mild euphemism! I wouldn't call it an elitist conspiracy but nonetheless I don't think it's controversial to say that there's an organised crowd who are dedicated to harassing UKIP over and above other parties.

Spangly A posted:

There really weren't many healthcare providers in the entire world better than the NHS and I can think of precisely none that were free bar prescription. It was also 4th-6th most efficient fairly consistently.

And then we hired a guy to lend "international expertise" who previously worked in the country that ranked below Serbia and one place above Iran in the WHO tables.

Thrasophius posted:

It really does make me sick watching it begin to ail like it is when it is preventable. It's all well and good the government saying "austerity" when they no doubt have private healthcare themselves but it royally fucks over the average Joe. As mentioned by you guys the sheer waste of resources and bad descisions is ridiculous.

Rigged Death Trap posted:

In the end though, we are slaughtering them. And it really shouldnt be an issue how so long as it's not cruel and unusual.

SybilVimes posted:

These articles are click bait, the premise is that they know 100k, 120k, 250k is an 'absurd' amount to be saying 'we're poor' with, they want you to be outraged that someone could be so out of touch, and thus click on the link, then share it with all your friends.

El Scotch posted:

I assumed you were a dude, my bad.

Seaside Loafer posted:

Well no but from a big newspaper?!?

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad posted:

(Conservatives do some wacky batshit thing where everyone votes again and again until the right chap wins more than half the vote).

shrike82 posted:

Why the gently caress does it cost 300 pounds for a student visa to the UK?

Pissflaps posted:

No I don't think that was it and I don't think it has been.

And I thought it was Ofsted, not the DoE, performing an investigation.

quote:

Chris Sims, chief constable of West Midlands police, condemned as "desperately unfortunate" the appointment of Peter Clarke to look into allegations of Islamic fundamentalists infiltrating schools.

Peter Clarke, who served as head of the Metropolitan police's counter-terrorism unit and led the investigation into the 7/7 London bombings in 2005, has been asked to examine claims made in an unsigned and unverified document, circulated in Birmingham and beyond, boasting of an plot named Operation Trojan Horse.

quote:

West Midlands police are investigating fraud claims linked to a primary school named in the Trojan Horse letter but decided the letter itself was not a criminal matter. The force was therefore surprised when Gove, without seeking their advice, appointed Clarke to look into the matter.

quote:

Clarke is due to report back with his findings in the summer. Ofsted is not expected to publish inspection reports into the 15 Birmingham schools until after Easter.

quote:

Clarke's appointment as education commissioner also revealed tensions between the Department for Education (DfE) and Birmingham city council, which on Monday announced its own independent adviser to look into the Trojan Horse claims, working alongside two separate panels made up of MPs, councillors, police and faith groups.

Dismayed at Gove going over his head, the leader of the council, Sir Albert Bore, said Clarke's background could "undermine the confidence of our communities".

spikenigma posted:

Err, no. He appointed a retired senior police officer, who was head of the counter-terrorism unit 6 years ago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Clarke_%28police_officer%29

SybilVimes posted:

Were there this many right wing racism-orientated parties in the last EU election? I'm pretty sure I remember it being Lab, Lib, Con, UKIP and BNP and that's it, now we seem to have 5 or 6 parties pandering to the 'dem muslims ' vote

(part of me hopes it splinters the votes enough to damage the UKIP representation, but its still scary)

Answers Me posted:

It somehow passed me by (or I'd gladly forgotten) that Nick Griffin was an elected MEP until I saw this in the suggested videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZE6u9OCPK1Y

How the hell did that happen?

Trickjaw posted:

All very much more PROACTIVE* and emotional language, so aside from being patronised you get guilted too

*I hate this word, as it is a non word. You are active or not.

quote:

If '1984' or 'The Trial' had been a children's book, Mr Messy would be it. No literary character has ever been so fully and categorically obliterated by the forces of social control. Hargreaves may well pay homage to Kafka and Orwell in this work, but he also goes beyond them.

...

The book ends with a dry reminder from Hargreaves that just as with the secret police in some totalitarian regime, our own small expressions of uniqueness and volition may also result in a visit from these sinister suited agents.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad posted:

Anyone who tries to get on Murdoch's good side (ie at the moment the SNP & Tories, as far as I'm aware) should be aware that doing so means you must be totally ready to bend over and accept a full on media campaign for 0 hour contracts, which is what most of the backroom staff at The Times/Sky News are on.

Ddraig posted:

As we know, students now have free tuition, babies have more incubators and ARE BOYS have proper body armour because all politicians mean what they say, especially with elections so close.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad posted:

I dunno about upper management being told what to do, I wasn't there for very long, but down on the floor we just tried to do the best, fastest (hence the Never Wrong For Long First For Breaking News tagline) but it was pretty galling when they were doing features on zero hours contracts going "hey email us with yr opinions" and I'm there like "uhhh I am on 0 hours I work at that desk just off camera".

But I don't think anyone gives a poo poo about the Murdoch's opinions, everybody trying their hardest Not To Get Fired and not have the channel shut down, as it's basically a pit into which BSkyB pours money for no tangible gain. Here's a good blog piece by another ex-Sky bod http://fryingpanfire.com/2010/06/skys-the-limit/


(by "strong-willed stakeholders" read "total pebbledicks")

DesperateDan posted:

It's damaging, but it won't sink fartrage. Too many brits would probably nod along to the whole idea of judging where people come from as fine, just so long as they don't openly pick on "the blacks". That's racism in Britain today, attack any facet of race bar colour of skin, and it just doesn't register as racism to so many

It's a good, solid kick to the danglies though, and it sure cheered me up

HortonNash posted:

Holy poo poo!

Gove announces plan to privatise Child Protection Services.

And he does it quietly.

HortonNash posted:

The thing is the private companies employed to provide child protection services will just hire all the newly redundant council staff on shittier contracts, and claim "See, SAVINGS!" whilst trousering huge sums for themselves. It's exactly what happened with the PCTs. There simply isn't some huge pool of private child protection professionals waiting to jump in.

Notice also that the councils retain all liability for the service provision, even when handed over to G4S.

Ddraig posted:

That's an interesting study. How does the Pope feel about it?

Spangly A posted:

Michael Gove really needs to not be allowed around positions of authority.

Peel posted:

There's surely large sections of the Conservative party who agree that UKIP aren't racist because they sympathise heavily or outright agree with them, though I agree that wouldn't by itself explain a rhetorical stance from a senior minister.

XMNN posted:

"They're not racist, they just hate people who are different to them!" is not a particularly compelling argument.

I bet Eric Pickles likes to tell everyone about the distinction between ephebophilia and paedophilia, as well.

ThomasPaine posted:

I understand some of the arguments for wanting out of the EU, and I'm sure a UKIP government would achieve that

Boing posted:

I do work on memory psych and witness testimony and there's no evidence to this effect. The forgetting curve for accurate recall can be steep or shallow situationally but it always goes down.

quote:

With Pfizer's bid for AstraZeneca on the ropes tonight, investment bankers face missing out on some pretty lucrative fees.

My colleague Rupert Neate has been investigating; and found that banks, lawyers, accountants and PR firms could have shared up to £345m for advising Pfizer on the deal. That's based on the typical model where advisors receive 0.5% of a deal's value.

A top banker's share of the pie could have been several million pounds.

The PR contract along would have been pretty lucrative, as Rupert reports:

A senior PR executive at a different firm said Brunswick chairman Alan Parker would be "devastated" at the collapse of the deal. "The contract would have been in the high hundreds of thousands into seven figures," the PR man said.

"They will be devastated by this, it would have made up a meaningful part of the bonus – it would be the difference between getting a Ferrari or not."