JUSTICE

When I worked in the Claims Unit in Belfast, hand in hand with the CPS, I so admired Piers Grant who was a barrister.

I felt so privileged to work with him at the time. I am shocked that he sentenced a woman to prison for stealing a £10 pair of jeans.

Back in the 1980’s/90’s barristers were making a fortune from public liability claims and most of the time they didn’t even want to put up a fight. They were getting paid regardless of the outcome so why bother to put themselves out?

Now Piers is a judge. Well, well, well.

He seems to have forgotten how they all looked sideways back in the day and for some reason has decided to lay down the law that did not apply to them then.

If it wasn’t so sad it would be laughable.

The barristers were getting paid unbelievable amounts of money for doing very little. They flounced around in their wigs and gowns and negotiated settlements to save them fighting for justice.

I learned that going to court was the last place to seek justice.

It is as corrupt an establishment as so many closed organisations are in the world that puts greed first. The people in charge looked down on us with glee and rubbed their hands in anticipation of their fees.

I don’t know the ins and outs of the case but I have a feeling that if a person was driven to steal a £10 pair of jeans she needed help. Not a prison sentence. Shame on you Piers!

As for robbery … the law society has got away with daylight robbery for a long time. That is between you and your peers.   

DIFFERING BELIEFS

I never thought I would hear myself say that I agree with a politician after so many robbed us blind and destroyed the NHS and other important utilities. But I find myself agreeing with David Cameron’s ideology about the failure of a multicultural Britain.

We Irish have exported ourselves all over the world and do our best to fit in.

Granted, our love of the spirit is not tolerated everywhere, but in most of those places the weed is an acceptable substitute. Don’t do as I do. Do as I say!

Cameron is right in what he says about people from different cultures coming to the UK and keeping themselves segregated from the natives. It is all very well to want a better life and come here to live off the state which is funded by … who? That would be the people they don’t want to integrate with. What is the point of making a journey only to recreate a microcosm of the place you were escaping from?

I have witnessed the caste system in places like India and Pakistan. I have seen how women are treated like shackles; afraid to show their faces in public because they would be stoned to death by men who have no respect for them; and apparently no respect for us either. Why come to a country you do not want to be part of? It really does not make sense.

There are so many wonderful people who have come here and enriched our lives. I love them with all my heart. It is Chinese Year of the Rabbit. I was born in 1960 which I think is the year of the rat. No surprise there then.

I am not saying our cultural society is perfect. Far from it! When I see wee girls out half naked and drunk and falling in the gutter it makes me wish I could turn away. If we all turn away where is this going to end?

I have many friends from all over the world. Tolerant, hopeful people striving to make a better future.

Cameron may just be pointing us in the right direction though we will have to see how that goes. The good people like the Muslim Council are appalled by what he has said. It is time they got out on the streets and found out the true situation. It is all very well for learned men to sit in comfort and debate law. Out on the street there is no law anymore.

So we have differing beliefs. Can we not compromise? After all we share this planet … our home. It is what sustains us in the end.

If we don’t wise up and join together we are going to be extinct.