Compensation for miscarriages of justice
The Home Secretary today made noises that compensation for miscarriages of justice should be capped at £500,000.
With recent changes to the law to allow the State to now hold people for 28 days without charge (thankfully it’s not the 90 days that the police wanted) (and it’s not the indefinite and illegal methods of the US) this is basically an option
The Government thinks that it can save about £5m a year in compensation claims. £5m?! £5m is nothing in terms of State expenditure in the UK. There’s just been an announcement that the Government is to spend an additional £800m on Iraq/Afghanistan (which, coincidentally, is the same as the current NHS deficit).
This is obviously not about the money (although the Daily Mail et al will probably frontpage it as such) it’s about control and responsibility. The Government wants to be able to hold one, uncharged, for as long as possible, and then limit it’s own liability when they’re forced to let one go (through lack of evidence, etc.) or when they’ve just got it plain wrong.
This is, in my opinion, just another example of Blair & co.’s attitude to the British public: they’re not here for us, we’re here to do what they say. I think it’s only a matter of time before there’s such a backlash against this government that it’ll make their heads spin.