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The Magistrate's Blog (2005-2012)

This blog has migrated to www.magistratesblog.blogspot.co.uk This blog is anonymous, and Bystander's views are his and his alone. Where his views differ from the letter of the law, he will enforce the letter of the law because that is what he has sworn to do. If you think that you can identify a particular case from one of the posts you are wrong. Enough facts are changed to preserve the truth of the tale but to disguise its exact source.

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Location: Near London, United Kingdom

The blog is written by a retired JP, with over 30 years' experience on the Bench.

Monday, November 13, 2006

Nine Years is a Long Time

The late, highly respected Lord Chief Justice, Lord Bingham, made a speech in 1997 that to many of us was a model of informed and civilised opinion about crime and punishment. It is here.

When he made the speech the Labour government had been in office for a few months. Then, the speech seemed magisterial. Today, it would be denounced as soft and woolly. In particular, he makes a point that is in flat contradiction to the Government's intention to bring in prison for drivers who kill by pure accident. Times do, indeed, change, do they not?

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