In message , Sacha
writes
On 2011-08-17 11:54:58 +0100, Martin said:

On Wed, 17 Aug 2011 11:50:57 +0100, Sacha wrote:

On 2011-08-17 10:09:51 +0100, Martin said:

On Wed, 17 Aug 2011 10:00:26 +0100, Sacha
wrote:

On 2011-08-17 09:57:56 +0100, Baz said:

Mike Lyle wrote in
:

On Tue, 16 Aug 2011 15:59:36 GMT, Baz wrote:

Mike Lyle wrote in
:


You spoke to the Clerk to the Justices, or a clerk working for
the
Court? A slight difference, as the latter is, well, a clerk; the
former isn't what we'd commonly call a "clerk", but a lawyer, who
will usually ensure the Justices don't commit bloopers: on the
whole I'll be surprised if a learned Clerk would tend to agree with
what you say above. The criminal justice system would crash and burn
without JPs.
Oh, and what _is_ a "do-gooder", please?

I spoke to the viperous person who explains to the magistrate
in court
what the offender is here for and just what a bad lot the defendant is
and advises the JP, magistrate or whatever you need to call them,
do-gooder is a good description of an idiot I saw give liberty to a
callous, no good trash criminal who invades everyone it comes across.
This person is the clerk of the court.
Certainly, the person who advises the magistrates on the law is
the
Clerk to the Justices. I'm surprised this "viperous" one stepped out
of line with you: I don't think he should have criticised the JPs.
The do-gooder is that the person, on the bench with 2 others

no idea how much they hurt a victim of crime by giving a soft
sentence.
All of this is fresh in my mind, and I have spoken to this
clerk of
the court, the same person who was physically in court who was
advising the bench.
I hope this explains to you just how good our magistrates
courts are.
Crash and burn indeed!
Well, crash and burn is what the system _would_ do without

Imagine if the Crown Court had to deal with every offence instead of
only maybe ten per cent of them: the waiting list would make the
slowest hospital look brilliant, and they'd probably run out of jurors
in a few years.
I'm sorry you had a bad experience; but it isn't usually like


I understand what you mean, Mike.
I just wish the magistrates or JP's would toughen up and make

punishment fit the crime.
Baz
Part of that - not all of it - is the political will behind the
directives given to the judiciary. Quite a lot of politicians seem to
live in a sort of glass cage, unaware that the general public is
becoming mightily frustrated at a lot of the things going wrong which
we used to take for granted.
and the closing of things that could be afforded even during the
great
depression, things like public libraries, and mobile libraries in
rural areas, maternity wards in hospitals in remote places etc.
bus services,
They close because few use them.

village shops,
They can't compete with supermarkets.

Indeed but I think this is where quite a lot of people would like to
see a halt to the march of the supermarkets.
Stopping them being sub-post offices was the last straw.

Yes. Our village shop/post office closed because when the owner tried
to sell it, the PO would only allow them 15 hours of PO selling per
week and that was the most lucrative source of income. The PO in
Ashburton has been up for sale for years but nobody wants to take it on
because of the bureaucracy and red-tape. Our local PO owner gave up
when the powers-that-be insisted he, his wife and their one employee
learned how to use the computer and said that only they could do so. Of
course, not only did this mean a steepish learning curve for them, it
meant that they couldn't go on holiday as the HQ wouldn't approve
anyone else using the computer.

price of petrol in rural areas, planning
decisions
yes

but I'd say education, crime and NHS are top of many agendas.
Village schools died in the early 1950s.

Ours is a CoE school and is still going strong.


Paradoxically, although village populations may grow, attendance at the
school may diminish, not because there are fewer children living there
but because parent commutes out of the village to work and so places
child in a school nearer to her/his work place.
--
hugh