Tuesday 15 April 2014

As ye sew, Mr Evans, so shall ye reap!

This is absolutely typical of the Tories.

Nigel Evans was recently cleared of several very serious charges of sexual impropriety.

If you trust the English legal system, then you will believe that this proves him to be innocent of these crimes.

My sympathies are with anyone who is accused of something they did not do. When rape, a particularly nasty and universally despised crime, is among them, it is even more essential that an innocent person has the opportunity to defend himself.

But Mr Evans has discovered that, after being found not guilty, he cannot claim back his £130,000 bill for legal representation from legal aid.  And he’s not a happy chappie.

The thing is that, being a relatively law abiding person, and therefore never thinking that he would be in a position to make a claim, Mr Evans supported this arrangement when the current government bought in cuts to the legal aid bill.

Now he thinks it is unjust. 

In short, this arrangement is ok for other people, but not for Mr Evans.

There’s actually a point there for everyone who agrees with cuts to payments that help people who may need help. You simply never know when it is going to be you…

...who is unemployed for the first time;

...who has an accident or who contracts a horrible illness and can no longer work;

...who needs constant care;

...who has to go into a residential home.

Making the mistake of treating these issues like they only affect 'other people' has come back to bite Mr Evans on his bottom.

So maybe he would like to revise his stance on the newly introduced fees for taking a case to an employment tribunal.

He might, too, wish to reconsider his attitude to the cap on benefits and welfare, because with a bill for £130,000 to pay, he may be a lot closer to needing it than he would otherwise ever have thought himself to be.

Additionally, you have to wonder what a non privileged person would do if he or she were landed with a bill for £130,000 pounds to clear his name of a heinous crime of which he or she is innocent.


And we are all in this together…? My backside we are!
**********
I just saw this on Facebook... I read the story earlier in the Telegraph. Brogan seems to feel that it is understood in Downing Street that losing Scotland would be too much of a wound for a prime minister to continue with and that Cameron would definitely have to go.

But the referendum will take place in September and the UK election is in May...only 7 months later. 

A lot to do, to choose another leader, settle a manifesto, and get elected...

Interesting thought though: If he is right (and I doubt it), a NO vote is a vote to keep David Cameron.

The article (linked above) is worth a read for some of the other comments. He says that Cameron should throw himself into the fight for the union, establish an office in Glasgow (not Edinburgh) and base himself there for 3 months... 

Bring it on, I say.

11 comments:

  1. Re Cameron, I hope that news makes the Evening Telegraph too. It should boost the Yes figures

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    Replies
    1. It would be good news everywhere, I suspect Marcia.

      It's a pity (in this case) that the Daily Telegraph only sells a half dozen copies here.

      Delete
  2. The London establishment just don't get it.
    Scots,by and large,despise Tories and setting up any sort of new Tory office here will only remind people of why we need to vote Yes.
    Don't think they are that stupid......but maybe.

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    Replies
    1. That's my point bringiton.

      They seem to think that telling the Tories to keep out of it was an electoral ploy by Labour to deny them publicity.

      Never having properly been here and despite the appalling election results, they just don't know how much intense hatred there is for them in this country.

      Delete
  3. I never tire of saying regardless of how well off you might be today you are one pay packet away from poverty

    The people who denigrate the poor would do well to take this on board, but we know they won't after all they are too smart so will always be above all that poverty nonsense are they not?

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    Replies
    1. I completely agree.

      Horrific things can happen to even the luckiest and most successful of people.

      Of course, these folk do have a financial buffer.

      And they also have friends in high places.

      But a bill of twice the annual salary is a big burden.

      The question I would ask is... if it were not someone who could either pay this money from their savings, or sell a house, or whatever ...just an ordinary bloke who had been accused of these crimes, how would he pay for that kind of legal representation.

      It seems to me that if court cases cost that kind of money, either the state has to be responsible for the finance, or we have to start looking at why these things cost so much.

      We could start by halving some of the outrageous wages that legal people get.

      Delete
  4. Tris

    I have sympathy for anyone wrongly accused of a crime but no sympathy for Nigel Evans regarding legal aid. This was again about saving money at the poorest people's expense. You can have legal advice if you can afford it but if you can't that's too bad. He didn't care when they changed the policy so I don't care that he has to give up some of his millions to pay his bills, he'll get it back in expences one way or the other anyway.

    I don't think Cameron is out in the event of a YES vote at all, I just don't see it. I really think that if the choice is Scotland or the Conservatives in power in England the answer is an easy one. He will be seen as the one who protected Englands interests and anyway they will get rid of the jocks and I am yet to meet an English person who at the end of the day is that bothered wether we stay or go.

    The only people really frieghtened about Scotland going in England are labour. Brian Wilson said it last night on the debate, that I turned off after 20 minutes as it was awful, but as he said if Scotland goes do we really want to leave English people with right wing tory governments. That whole comment summed it up for me and no one challenged it, even when the debate is about Scottish Independence it is really about England and the effect on England. Labour just don't care about Scotland and the no voters and the brainwashed need to understand that before they make the biggest mistake of their lives and take us all down with them.

    Bruce

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  5. Typical right winger eh? Only realises the importance of social good to be conducted by government AFTER it affects HIM.

    Same goes for all the GOP reps in US Congress, who suddenly 'discovering' they are okay with gay rights after all ... especially after their own kids come out as lgbt...

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    Replies
    1. Yes Dean. It's exactly the same.

      It's good for the lower orders, but when it comes to smack them in the face suddenly it's a problem.

      Delete
  6. What do these people do with their salary, they do not spend it on food, mortgages are ours, we pay for them. We have even paid for their best friend's food (dog), now we are to pay for their legal bills. I have no idea whether Nigel Evans is innocent or guilty, given his status I doubt he would ever be found guilty, when many an innocent languishes in gaol, but he receives a fairly decent salary and no doubt has other irons in the fire, so legal aid is certainly not for him.

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    Replies
    1. I'm sure he'll not end up down at a food bank Helena.

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