Crusty old Geeklawyer remembers the glorious old days when we had an effective right to silence. That suffered under the first of the new breed of populist Home Secretarys, Micheal Howard who lit on it to build his reputation as a man who would tackle the scourge of society: civil liberties & human rights. And the slope down which each subsequent Home Secretary has had to slide has been a vertiginous and icy one ever since.
Geeklawyer has mentioned before the case of two motorists who have been compelled under anti-civil liberties legislation to incriminate themselves. Judgement in their case is expected to be delivered by the European Court of Human Rights today.
Geeklawyer is going to guess that they will. regrettably, get no joy. Updates when I hear of them.
Update:
Dammit - I was right unfortunately - they lost 15 to 2. More detailed analysis to come.
Yes this is a shame and of course this weekend we will see another fixed penality notice being introduced with the smoking ban.
I love the smoking ban here in Ontario.
As for photo radar, or whatever it's called in the UK, we've had that here in the Colonies off and on for several years. Most don't even notice it, so we still get madcap street racers crashing into "innocent cars".
Oh I'm totally with you on the smoking ban. A friend of mine asserts that there is no scientific proof of the effects - tho' the tobacco industry has been the usual proponent of that view. And in fact they are right - there is no *absolute* proof but there is sufficient to make it prudent. And the social consequences ar undoubted - it sucks.