International Law

Offensive disproportion

By John Hirst

Now that Marcel Berlins has discovered what he calls offensive disproportion, such as someone being fined £50 for violent disorder whereas a pensioner gets fined £100 for putting the wrong kind of rubbish in a rubbish bin, he suggests that there should be in government a Minister for the Abolition of Offensive Disproportion. I quite like the idea. However, as they all appear to become wastrels once in office I think the post would remain vacant whichever political party wins the next election.

My present gripe is that the London Olympics Games in 2012 will cost at least £10 billion. Therefore, by comparison it does appear to be disproportionate that so far the Iraq war has cost between £6-7 billion. Whilst baling out Northern Rock has cost more than £50 billion.

As it stands MPs pretend to represent the electorate when in fact their real job description is that of waste management. They effectively manage to waste our money.

Full post as published by prisonlawinsideout on September 03, 2008 (boomark / email).