The Justice of the Peace [magistrate`s] Blog:

Are we as our particular group whatever that might be in favour of a pledge to be gentle with babies? Yes of course we are. Are we pledged to be nice to our elderly mums? Nothing but nice. Do we pledge to walk with our left foot after our right or perhaps our right after our left? Do we pledge to hope that the world does not become too warm even if it`s not our fault? Are we crazy? We would be if we continued in this manner.

Hertfordshire Police is the first police force nationally to sign up to the Nottingham Declaration. This apparently is a voluntary agreement to tackle the causes of climate change. And I had thought they were having a hard time doing the jobs they`re paid to do eg preventing disorder and catching offenders. By subscribing to it they are pledging to address climate change. Not only are they going to be tackling this in the leafy lanes of Hertfordshire they`re going to spread these good works and words to reduce emissions across the country. They have already started to update green policies across Hertfordshire Constabulary including introducing an automatic overnight shutdown of three-quarters of the force's computers. That seems a good idea but what about all the information that I presume comes from all these people and computers who operate 24 hour shifts? I am sure they will pledge that they can cope. Perhaps they should order a few hundred new bikes to spread the good news to the council tax payers. No that`s not quite in the spirit of this post. Let them pledge to consider ordering an especially nice tandem for the Chief Constable and Stuart Nagler, Chair of the Hertfordshire Police Authority.

It seems that the government has concluded that Justices of the Peace are not a danger to society. Today a notice has been issued to that effect; namely that we will not have to be certified by the Independant Safeguarding Authority. {see below} That really does make me feel trusted to do justice to all without fear or favour as I and my colleagues swore to do when appointed.  I just needed to be reminded....

Magistrates: Independent Safeguarding Authority

MoJ Statement

Magistrates: Independent Safeguarding Authority

I am pleased to confirm that it has been established that the position of 'Magistrate' is not a regulated activity for the purposes of the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA). This means that it will not be a requirement for existing Magistrates, including those who serve on the youth and family panels, to register with the ISA when registration commences from 26 July 2010. ISA-registration will not be required either for candidates for appointment to the Magistracy.

Candidates will need to continue to apply for enhanced level disclosure checks with the Criminal Records Bureau (CR, and the successful outcome of this check will continue to be a key part of the pre-appointment process.

A new CRB application form is being introduced from late June 2010 and the Magistrates Policy & Appointments Branch at the Ministry of Justice will be sending out a Circular to Advisory Committees in April about this change.

Although it`s nearly a year since the scandal of MPs` fiddles broke in the Daily Telegraph it seems like yesterday.  Criminal proceedings are underway against four MPs, The Lords is also investigating its own suspected wrong doers. The BBC is attempting to evade answering the question of the identities of its £100K employees.  Banks which are now virtually nationalised beyond the wildest dreams of the late Michael Foot and Aneurin Bevin and are therefore under government control are being castigated for continuing to pay certain staff enormous sums of money which arguably should be being lent to small business.   Scandals within public quoted companies, politicians etc and even the judiciary [few and far between] have been with us for hundreds of years. It could be argued that now in the age of the world wide web tracks covering is a trifle more difficult for upper class white collar villains. But now just a day  after the Met Police`s former top non white officer has been thrown out and might lose his pension it has been published that the Chief Constable and Deputy Chief Constable of North Yorkshire Police are the subject of an investigation managed by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) following allegations that they gave help to relatives applying for work.

When corruption appears to be commonplace within the widest definition of public bodies it is truly time to take note.  Combine that with this authoritarian government`s ever increasing control of every day activities, continual attempts to alter public opinion by deceitful use of inaccurate statistics and I would venture to observe that we are at the equivalent of the Goths being on the banks of the Tiber 536A.D.  Our homes won`t be sacked, our cattle will not be slaughtered nor our daughters raped but what we nostalgically refer to as the British way of life will be but a memory  about which social dinosaurs  will reminisce on feast days.

Today used to be called All Fools Day. In parts of Europe it still is. Its origins are diverse and unclear but are thought to have been referred to in France in the mid 16th century when the country was moving from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar and those who stubbornly continued to follow the former were referred to as Poisson d`Avril, or April Fish which, to this day, remains the French term for April Fools and so the tradition was born.

There is perhaps a fishy smell about the latest news to come from the London Probation Service or perhaps it is what it appears on the surface to be........a ship of fools manned by fools.On the one hand of government the public must not think that Judges and Magistrates are too lenient in their sentencing and on the other these self same members of the judiciary are exhorted to use non custodial means to punish/rehabilitate those offenders for whom there might be some light at the end of their offending tunnel. No need to mention that the prisons are 95% - 100% full at any one time and cannot accommodate any more £600 per week guests.

Malcolm Jenkin, director of interventions for London Probation, said London Probation "has temporarily ceased using casual status project supervisors in community payback. He suggested other restrictive measures be considered for convicted offenders. This reduction in availability began on 8th February and ended yesterday 31st March.

Harry Fletcher, the assistant general secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers, was quoted as saying, "not surprised". He added that some officers now only had time to spend only fifteen minutes a week with offenders they were meant to be monitoring.

A spokesperson from the Probation Service said, "The effect was small and manageable, and had no effect whatsoever on the overall length of unpaid work to which offenders were sentenced. "

That spokesperson really does take us all for fools referring to the arrangement as if it were pre planned and a normal occurrance and had little relationship to the admission that cash had run out before the year end. For one thing it demonstrates all too clearly that similarly to HMCS`s pre-occupation with targets for how long to do "this" and how many days until "that" happens no mention of quality or lack of it is considered worthy of comment......after all how can quality be demonstrated or measured to show everything`s just fine.

Peter`s Principle; the theory that an employee within an organization will advance to his or her level of incompetence and remain there, governs so many of those on the public payroll from Parliament Square to the local sorting office that St Peter should replace George as the patron saint of England......after all so many emulate him and his theory it`s a perfect fit.