Posts by SirStrider

Re: Any lawyers present?

IANAL, but ...

There is a subtle distinction between a property owned by the public (so a public property) and a place where any member of the public can go/take photos freely (a public place). If the school was a public place, any member of the public would be able to enter it and wander up/down it's halls, which they are obviously not allowed to do. So yes, the council was _probably_ within their rights to ban the photography.

Secondly, you _do_ vote your local council in, so they are just as much the public's representative and are not subservient to M(S)Ps . Arguably they have a stronger mandate in local matters than your M(S)Ps (and definitely your MEPs) because when voting for your council you only care about local issues, but when voting for your M(S)P you normally are voting on national issues.

Still, can see the current lot of councillors not doing very well next election.

Because Justice normally needs some discression

<Quote>

"Second, they decide if a prosecution would be in the public interest."

What kind of assessment is this? If it isn't in the public interest to prosecute, why is the activity in question deemed illegal?

</Quote>

Although in this case it is in the public interest to prosecute, those are general guidelines and there are sometimes quite a few examples where it isn't. Some examples:

A 3 year old kid might putting a marble from a shop in his pocket - he is technically stealing, but it wouldn't be in the public's interest to send him to court for it. Instead its more in their interest to make the parents look after him better.

Someone might have to break a window (so causing criminal damage) to get into a burning building to save someone's life.

Stolen from the IT Crowd

Or travel with someone called Peter File.

Re : Savings ( or maybe not)

Although cutting it could actually be a false economy :

"Moreover, the calculations on the tax relief plans demonstrated fairly clearly that they would actually leave the Treasury in the black within a short space of time, with tax relief for development being more than compensated for in revenues from the sales of the resulting products, not to mention the income tax earned from the large number of development staff employed in their creation. "

(Quote from a quite good sum up of why they got rid of the tax relief on gi.biz [http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/tiga-talks-tax-blog-entry - Free Registration might be required)

More than 1 way to fight a war

Not that your post is a bit sensational - but its nice to know that other countries are experimenting with other methods of dealing with drug addiction and are actually having a better rate of success.

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1893946,00.html

Re : Clause 17

I didn't think Clause 17 got into the bill - it was re-written as a clause 18? Can I second JamesW asking for a more detailed breakdown on what passed, as its got quite muddled with all the amendments.

Ta

:-)