Morality versus Legality?

! This post hasn't been updated in over a year. A lot can change in a year including my opinion and the amount of naughty words I use. There's a good chance that there's something in what's written below that someone will find objectionable. That's fine, if I tried to please everybody all of the time then I'd be a Lib Dem (remember them?) and I'm certainly not one of those. The point is, I'm not the kind of person to try and alter history in case I said something in the past that someone can use against me in the future but just remember that the person I was then isn't the person I am now nor the person I'll be in a year's time.

This country is supposedly governed by the rule of law. So why is it that the British government can decide to obstruct the lawful challenge of an unlawful conviction because they believe the conviction was morally right?

ContraTory carries an article about the unlawful convictions of motorists on illegal level crossings.  It appears that several hundred level crossings have been illegally installed by a government agency that did not have the legal right to install them.  Convictions obtained in relation to these illegal level crossings are invalid and as such, a legal challenge should see a judge quashing the conviction, any paid fines refunded and penlty points removed from licences.

However, the British government has said that they will do everything possible and make it as expensive as possible to prevent people from contesting their unlawful convictions because they believe the conviction is morally right as the drivers were putting lives at risk.  Yes, the drivers put lives at risk and yes, the conviction is probably morally right but the conviction is unlawful.

The fact that it is merely a technicality which makes the conviction unlawful is neither here nor there.  They are not escaping justice or getting away with breaking the law because the law says that they did not commit a crime.  The law is essential a set of codified morals – thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, etc.  What the British government believe to be morally right does not supercede the law of the land.  The law applies to us all equally … or so the theory goes.

2 comments

  1. Ken (12 comments) says:

    If only it were so, unfortunately TB and friends belive they do no need to pay attention to inconvenient legal niceties.

  2. Glen (3 comments) says:

    Samo Samo I’m afraid this just one example of this present government and if there is something we are doing that they dont like they write a new law to stop it. Britain is getting more and more like a police state everyday wouldn’t surprise me if they wrote a new law to make a site like this illegal what can we do.

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