Charles Clarke - shame on you

Charles Clarke continues his assualt on justice, human rights, and liberty:

Spending on compensation paid to those wrongly convicted of crimes in England and Wales is to be cut by £5m a year, Home Secretary Charles Clarke has said. Those who win their appeals at the first attempt will get no compensation. Others who may have spent years in prison will see any pay-outs capped.
BBC News

Tim Worstall is outraged:

If we as a society get things wrong and imprison the innocent it is our duty, as that very society, to both say sorry and to compensate them as best we can. What we offer can only ever be inadequate but to deny this moral fact, to save the price of MP’s pork pies?

A just society is one that is more concerned with imprisoning the innocent than letting-off the guilty. This is a further step toward a regime in which the burden of proof lies with the individual, and the benefit of the doubt is given to the state. Horrible stuff.

Comments

[TC]

There's a psychological factor too. If the government pay a lot of compensation it suggests that there has been a significant error, so reducing the compensation will appear to reduce the significance of the error.

[AJE]

That's true, but I'm more suspicious that that - it seems like nothing more than a cynical ploy to cover their backs in anticipation of the inevitable rise in innocent prosecutions brought about by the new terrorism laws.

[Andrew Mellor]

Stand by for the 'Evidence Required for Conviction' bill - the governments latest reform of the criminal justice system which will mean that if sufficient evidence* can't be brought against a person accused of a terrorism offence then a conviction can be secured by a panel of carefully selected MPs (fully breifed by No. 10 and the appropriate police officials) who will remain anonymous.

*evidence as a principle is essentially a 20th century phenomenon and cannot be effectively applied or required in contemporary society given the 'new rules of engagement' and the 'virtual' nature of global terrorism (see 'Moving the Goalposts: Effective Deceiptful Gesturing for the Twenty-First Century Politician' published by Tony Blair and Alastair Campbell in 'New Labour Quarterly', March 2003.