A tale of woe for those who drive taxis without the appropriate licence
A private hire taxi requires a number of licences, the driver requires a licence, the operator a licence and the car a licence.
My client today was up on 2 counts of driving with no insurance the catch all charge for those who have touted. Insurance is usually not permitting to use the car for private hire. So people may have insurance for themselves but the moment they tout the insurance becomes invalid.
My client intended to plead guilty and well he might as he had no chance of winning, he apparently had been driving in his (well not his an employer's) car on another job, not cabbing, when he saw another cab broken down by the road, he phoned his colleague to be informed that he was stuck and could not get to a job. My client helpfully said that, as a favour (yeah) he would pick up the fare so that they did not miss out and take them home, as a favour and for no money (yeah)
By the time he arrived at the airport, the fare had been waiting an hour or more and was not happy. Not happy being an understatement. The fare then looked at the car and asked why there was no licence for the car, the client tried to bluff his way out of it before agreeing that the car did not have the relevant licence. The fare then decided, due to the hour or so wait, to take the car in any event.
Unfortunately, for my client, the fare was the leader of the W District Council, and the Council take a great deal of interest in licensing. Having taken a ride and paying him, the Council leader reported him. And so he was in Court.
So the moral for this story, is if you do not have the relevant licence do not pick up the leader of the Council, or if you do, do not turn up an hour late!
Wednesday 29 October 2008
Springtime
More bloody weather, mind you we would complain if we did not have any. I am sorry the weather is cancelled today is going to be dark and dull, and not particularly cold. Or hot. Ever.
No I think we actually prefer the real stuff, even if the environment is taking a beating.
Global warming is a bit a misnomer especiall where I am sitting in the snow in London in October 2008
No I think we actually prefer the real stuff, even if the environment is taking a beating.
Global warming is a bit a misnomer especiall where I am sitting in the snow in London in October 2008
Monday 27 October 2008
five days later and One Prince
Is it really five days since I have added anything...time flies when your computer breaks. I have now got a small netbook, which looked cute and is, though it is taking me a hard time to work out how to type with the small keypad, but I am sure I will get it, frustrating though it is.
I am now travelling to an East London court to represent a client whose name is that of a member of the royal family, Prince ?? Obviously I am not representing a memberof the royal family as they would have made sure that the prosecution was dropped. He is from Africa. He has the name, and he is sadly mad. The conference went something like this
Tell me guv, give it to me straight, its bad isnt it?
No it is a public order offence, you were shouting at people.
How long am I gonna get?
You are not going to prison (for this anyway0
Long then, I can handle it.
No prison.
Tell me, its your line of work, what its gonna be?
Nothing.
Bad then huh?
Very bad, I suggest you plead guilty.
But I have not done it.
No of course not, but it is your word against 3 policemen.
Well its white man's justice guv,
I am white.
Your different guv,
What not really white?
If he is not convicted I will eat my new computer
I am now travelling to an East London court to represent a client whose name is that of a member of the royal family, Prince ?? Obviously I am not representing a memberof the royal family as they would have made sure that the prosecution was dropped. He is from Africa. He has the name, and he is sadly mad. The conference went something like this
Tell me guv, give it to me straight, its bad isnt it?
No it is a public order offence, you were shouting at people.
How long am I gonna get?
You are not going to prison (for this anyway0
Long then, I can handle it.
No prison.
Tell me, its your line of work, what its gonna be?
Nothing.
Bad then huh?
Very bad, I suggest you plead guilty.
But I have not done it.
No of course not, but it is your word against 3 policemen.
Well its white man's justice guv,
I am white.
Your different guv,
What not really white?
If he is not convicted I will eat my new computer
Wednesday 22 October 2008
Heydrich - Reinhard / Heinz
Reinhard Heydrich is deemed evil. He was, apparently cultured, spoke a number of languages, was a horseman of some repute, a world class fencer, good violinist, and brave. He also was apparently ruthless, and in seeking to succeed is considered (with good reason) to have been an architect of the holocaust.
He also, according to received wisdom, could discern people's weaknesses and would hold onto information and use it for his own ends.
He piloted an early, and effective form of rendition. Nacht und Nebel, Night and Fog. After realising the abducting with pomp individuals who were either a danger or deemed to be possibly be a danger (sound familiar) created or could dissension, he decided that people would vanish as if in the night into the fog. They unfortunately went into his own system and were killed (7,000 apparently though for obvious reasons the number is not known, small compared to the holocaust, but distressing to those concerned).
But what is evil? Is it amorality.
Heydrich apparently never in determining something would never consider what he was doing was right, this was apparently a waste of time.
Heydrich was an anti-Semite. Many were and are. Does this make someone evil. Many Germans perceived (objectively wrongly, very very wrongly) that they were victims or threatened by Jews or Jewish influences. This has been seen in the context of Germany and Germany's nascent nationalism in the 19th and 20th century.
Germany did not exist as an unified country until recently. And it did not include and does not include all ethnic Germans. Yet they felt German or identified themselves as Germans, but at the time of 1939 they lived in Denmark, Holland, France, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Poland and Russia to name a few countries.
Out of all this came some very very strange ideas as to the threat to the German identity. Jews could be seen as an easy target, they did not proselytise, and had their own culture.
Ideas included such strange concepts as World Ice Theory, wherein the world was created in Ice, the moon is made of Ice as is the Milky Way. The German (Nordic or Aryan race) were made out of ice and were taken out of the ice by (the very bad) fire... This mad theory was adopted by Himmler and pursued. As was the idea that the Aryan race originated in Tibet.
So if one believes one is a victim, notwithstanding that objectively one is not, and then acts to "protect" (again erroneously) oneself and one's culture, does that make one evil?
So, does the mere pursuit of a goal without consideration of others, no matter the consequences of the actions to the others, or is it something more.
Is evil the enjoyment of creating suffering. Or the enjoyment of the infliction of suffering. Such as was found among the guards at concentration camps, such heinous individuals who set dogs on pregnant women, and tortured people for their own enjoyment. Is this evil?
Is evil inherent?
So is a person evil, in the sense of bad.
Or is it the acts that define a person. Can a person who acts in a destructive way in a mistaken belief (and it could be really mistaken) be evil?
And if the person who committed such acts becomes aware that the reason for doing them was wrong and repents, or resiles from doing them again, does that make him no longer evil, suppose he then commits to helping others, does that make him good?
I know not the answer.
Reinhard Heydrich's brother Heinz was a journalist and publisher on Die Panzerfaust (a german anti tank weapon) which was produced and printed on a train. The paper was for soldiers. He was, I am given to understand, a member of the Nazi party (though I am not sure and do not seek to malign if incorrect). After his brother's death, he was given a packet with papers belonging to RH. He read and burnt them.
He then helped Jews to escape.
He printed and made false identity documents on the Die Panzerfaust printing presses, to help Jews to get to Sweden.
He thought he was going to be discovered in 1944 (two years or so after his brother died), and fearing for his family's life at the hands of the Gestapo (proviously under his brother), he killed himself.
Brave, Courageous and definately good.
He also, according to received wisdom, could discern people's weaknesses and would hold onto information and use it for his own ends.
He piloted an early, and effective form of rendition. Nacht und Nebel, Night and Fog. After realising the abducting with pomp individuals who were either a danger or deemed to be possibly be a danger (sound familiar) created or could dissension, he decided that people would vanish as if in the night into the fog. They unfortunately went into his own system and were killed (7,000 apparently though for obvious reasons the number is not known, small compared to the holocaust, but distressing to those concerned).
But what is evil? Is it amorality.
Heydrich apparently never in determining something would never consider what he was doing was right, this was apparently a waste of time.
Heydrich was an anti-Semite. Many were and are. Does this make someone evil. Many Germans perceived (objectively wrongly, very very wrongly) that they were victims or threatened by Jews or Jewish influences. This has been seen in the context of Germany and Germany's nascent nationalism in the 19th and 20th century.
Germany did not exist as an unified country until recently. And it did not include and does not include all ethnic Germans. Yet they felt German or identified themselves as Germans, but at the time of 1939 they lived in Denmark, Holland, France, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Poland and Russia to name a few countries.
Out of all this came some very very strange ideas as to the threat to the German identity. Jews could be seen as an easy target, they did not proselytise, and had their own culture.
Ideas included such strange concepts as World Ice Theory, wherein the world was created in Ice, the moon is made of Ice as is the Milky Way. The German (Nordic or Aryan race) were made out of ice and were taken out of the ice by (the very bad) fire... This mad theory was adopted by Himmler and pursued. As was the idea that the Aryan race originated in Tibet.
So if one believes one is a victim, notwithstanding that objectively one is not, and then acts to "protect" (again erroneously) oneself and one's culture, does that make one evil?
So, does the mere pursuit of a goal without consideration of others, no matter the consequences of the actions to the others, or is it something more.
Is evil the enjoyment of creating suffering. Or the enjoyment of the infliction of suffering. Such as was found among the guards at concentration camps, such heinous individuals who set dogs on pregnant women, and tortured people for their own enjoyment. Is this evil?
Is evil inherent?
So is a person evil, in the sense of bad.
Or is it the acts that define a person. Can a person who acts in a destructive way in a mistaken belief (and it could be really mistaken) be evil?
And if the person who committed such acts becomes aware that the reason for doing them was wrong and repents, or resiles from doing them again, does that make him no longer evil, suppose he then commits to helping others, does that make him good?
I know not the answer.
Reinhard Heydrich's brother Heinz was a journalist and publisher on Die Panzerfaust (a german anti tank weapon) which was produced and printed on a train. The paper was for soldiers. He was, I am given to understand, a member of the Nazi party (though I am not sure and do not seek to malign if incorrect). After his brother's death, he was given a packet with papers belonging to RH. He read and burnt them.
He then helped Jews to escape.
He printed and made false identity documents on the Die Panzerfaust printing presses, to help Jews to get to Sweden.
He thought he was going to be discovered in 1944 (two years or so after his brother died), and fearing for his family's life at the hands of the Gestapo (proviously under his brother), he killed himself.
Brave, Courageous and definately good.
Tax - Victim
Victim Surcharge, is I realise, a tax.
We are all victims of those dreadful Americans and they way that they forced us to borrow lots of money and spend fortunes of overpriced houses, so I suppose the £15 victim surcharge will go into the government pot to pay for (not hospitals, police or more Courts), or rather go towards the governments enlightened policy of bailing out banks and other rich people.
So again the very very poor will be at last contributing to society as a whole, by giving (back) their benefits to the rich. Unique, circular, justice at last.
The rich can stay rich and the poor, I would say by giving their money away, but it is removed at source (they really cannot be trusted) so they don't get, stay poor.
We are all victims of those dreadful Americans and they way that they forced us to borrow lots of money and spend fortunes of overpriced houses, so I suppose the £15 victim surcharge will go into the government pot to pay for (not hospitals, police or more Courts), or rather go towards the governments enlightened policy of bailing out banks and other rich people.
So again the very very poor will be at last contributing to society as a whole, by giving (back) their benefits to the rich. Unique, circular, justice at last.
The rich can stay rich and the poor, I would say by giving their money away, but it is removed at source (they really cannot be trusted) so they don't get, stay poor.
Victim Surcharge
The wonderful New Labour project has deemed it necessary to enforce a Victim Surcharge on every person convicted of an offence. This is the kingly sum of £15.
The Court inform the Defendant that the £15 goes to the victims of crime. I have been the victim of a crime. When I phoned the police, they did not mention that I was entitled to £15. Nor did they come round and give me £15 when they took details.
I am not sure how to apply for it. It would not surprise me if it was means tested. Or restricted to those under 4 and over 100, who can speak Polish.
It sounds so good...
"For the crime of assault PC, I sentence you to 100 hours unpaid work, and £15 victim surcharge for the victims of crime".
The money does not even go to the victim of the crime to which the Defendant has either pleaded guilty to or been found guilty of.
I do not understand why someone convicted of driving other than in accordance with a licence (a learner driver) is also given the surcharge, who is the victim?
The Court inform the Defendant that the £15 goes to the victims of crime. I have been the victim of a crime. When I phoned the police, they did not mention that I was entitled to £15. Nor did they come round and give me £15 when they took details.
I am not sure how to apply for it. It would not surprise me if it was means tested. Or restricted to those under 4 and over 100, who can speak Polish.
It sounds so good...
"For the crime of assault PC, I sentence you to 100 hours unpaid work, and £15 victim surcharge for the victims of crime".
The money does not even go to the victim of the crime to which the Defendant has either pleaded guilty to or been found guilty of.
I do not understand why someone convicted of driving other than in accordance with a licence (a learner driver) is also given the surcharge, who is the victim?
Criminal Justice System - 2
Is really a kind of tax, a stealth tax. The defendants are almost to a tee the dispossessed in society, it is so rare for a defendant to have a job, it is almost a defence in itself.
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