Thursday, June 29, 2006

Is Ming Out of Touch on Judges?

Ming Campbell has given an interview to Steve Richards for GMTV's Sunday Programme. It centres around control orders. During the interview Ming comes out with this classic...

It’s one of the great tabloid myths of the United Kingdom that judges are out of touch with public opinion

Would every LibDem supporter who agrees with this comment kindly register the fact in the Comments Section?

11 comments:

Benedict White said...

As a Conservative I agree with Ming.

It is one thing knowing what public opinion is, it is another thing applying the facts of the case.

I also agree with the judge throwing out control orders. They are mad. I will bewriting an article on my blog over the weekend dealing with the whole war on terror business.

Anonymous said...

In as much as public opinion is driven by rabid tabloid journalists and doom-mongering (aka vote-hunting) polititions, then let's hope judges are out of touch.

And are judges really supposed to reflect public opinion? If so, shouldn't we be enjoying public hangings, floggings and automatic castration for rapists?

Anonymous said...

I agree with his Mingness.

Ross said...

Sadly it seems that the public is out of touch with the judiciary.

Anonymous said...

another own goal Iain!

James Graham (Quaequam Blog!) said...

I certainly don't think they can be said to be any less out of touch than any other part of the establishment.

The days of "a popular beat combo, m'lud" and "who is this Gazza?" were quite a long time ago and a lot of judges on the bench these days were young in the 60s.

There's been a significant change. Haven't you noticed Iain? Perhaps you're not as in touch yourself as you'd like think.

Anonymous said...

Does it really matter? Is it even a pertinent point?

The main concern for me where the judiciary are concerned right now is how much independence it has to exercise legitimate oversight of the judicial process. Without that, it is nothing.

If judges *were* in touch with public opinion in some areas, I reckon we might witness some Taleban-esque public floggings of paediatracians.

Porridge Oatens said...

Thanks for the heads up Iain.

Peeps might like to ponder the latest case of judges (and Mingness) being well and truly in touch with public opinion.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Ming too, I consider being out of touch with most of the UK to be a good thing!

Better than populist Cameroon policies like this Bill of Rights nonsense (by the way, I'm a Tory voter usually).

Anonymous said...

Why is Ming Campbell so obsessed with High Court judges? During his campaign it was 'why should HC judges who earn dah, dah a year not pay a penny extra in the pound'; now they are being held up as control group for society. Could it be that he harbours a great grudge against society because he is not High Chief Justice.

Anonymous said...

well he is another barrister after all, when will we get someone besides barristers, spin doctors, ex-poly lecturers and soi disant political advisors, to run the country?

What do they know about anything except the sound of their own voices and the boom of their own opinions?

political fcalonehn weer afterb