Someone sack Charles Clark!

Charles Clark is Home Secretary in the UK, right now. A Guardian article recently attributed this to him 'One of my concerns about the Liberal Democrats' approach is that they obviously think that one person being wrongly convicted even of a small crime is more serious than a thousand people being acquitted of crimes that are terrorising local communities,' he added.

This is bad. Really bad. A cursory examination of both the Dworkin and Hart side of most jurisprudence (and even Rumpole of the Bailey!) reveals a single, golden thread running throughout Western Jurisprudence - the idea that it is better to let a thousand guilty men walk free than to convict a single innocent. Abandon that, and you might as well throw out equality before the law, presumption of innocence, and limits on police powers. :-(

I fear for the future of my former country.
Mood: tired
Music: None