All too often people who would like lower taxes for themselves are afraid to admit it because they think that there is something

“All too often, people who would like lower taxes for themselves are afraid to admit it, because they think that there is something selfish and wrong with that attitude,” he said.. New laws to lock up individuals considered dangerous psychopaths, even if they had not committed a crime, are being drawn up by the Home Office. New laws to lock up individuals considered dangerous psychopaths, even if they had not committed a crime, are being drawn up by the Home Office.
The Government will push ahead with controversial legislation to give the courts the power to hand out a new “indeterminate” sentence to be imposed on people who are not considered treatable under current mental health laws.The new sentence aims to deal with offenders like Michael Stone, who was was given three life sentences in 1998 for killing Megan and Lin Russell with a hammer. He had been refused admittance to a mental hospital because his personality disorder was not classed as treatable.The decision follows the publication yesterday of a report by a committee of MPs that was broadly in support of earlier proposals by the Home Office in how to deal with potentially dangerous people.

It will be opposed by civil rights and mental health campaigners who have attacked plans to lock up people who had not broken the law and questioned how anyone can accurately predict future criminal behaviour.Under the law as it stands, the mentally ill can be locked up under the Mental Health Act but only if they are judged to be treatable. However, many psychiatrists argue that since psychopaths are “bad, not mad” and cannot be treated, those who are detained are unlikely ever to be released. It is estimated that existing loopholes leave around 600 potentially dangerous people at large.The Home Office plans to publish proposals in July for a Bill to bring in new powers in civil and criminal proceedings for indeterminate detention of dangerous people with severe personality disorders. If doctors believe the individual continues to pose a serious risk to the public they will remain in detention.It is also understood the Bill will include powers for courts to impose supervision restrictions on people leaving secure accommodation.But John Wadham, director of the civil rights organisation Liberty, warned: “Detaining people on the basis that they might commit a serious offence in the future requires a crystal ball.

Risk assessment and diagnosis are not precise sciences and there is a very real risk that individuals will be unjustly detained, particularly if they have no previous record of offending.”. A newly appointed part-time judge is set to become the first blind man to preside over a criminal court. A newly appointed part-time judge is set to become the first blind man to preside over a criminal court.
The appointment of John Lafferty, from London, as an assistant recorder was announced by the Lord Chancellor Lord Irvine today.The post, which involves sitting as a judge for 20-30 days a year, is seen as the first rung on the judicial ladder.There are already two other blind judges working, one in the High Court and one as an immigration adjudicator, but Judge Lafferty will be the first to hear criminal cases.Announcing the appointment, Lord Irvine called for more lawyers with disabilities to put themselves forward for promotion.The move follows a relaxation of the rule banning blind people from becoming magistrates.Diane Cram, from Exeter, was the first of six visually handicapped magistrates to begin work as part of an 18-month trial in 1998.There are now eight blind or partially sighted magistrates in post.A spokesman for the Royal National Institute for the Blind welcomed the news.He said: “We’d like to congratulate Judge Lafferty on his appointment and we welcome this groundbreaking development.”We would like to see more barriers removed from all walks of life so that all people can be considered for these posts.”. Gerry Adams dashed hopes of a peace breakthrough at the St Patrick’s Day celebrations in Washington, DC, by declaring last night that the 22 May deadline for decommissioning IRA weapons no longer existed. Gerry Adams dashed hopes of a peace breakthrough at the St Patrick’s Day celebrations in Washington, DC, by declaring last night that the 22 May deadline for decommissioning IRA weapons no longer existed.
As the parties crossed the Atlantic for the revived peace talks, to be held in the US, the Ulster Unionists hit back, warning that Sinn Fein could be in breach of the Good Friday Agreement by disowning the deadline for weapons decommissioning to start.Mr Adams, the Sinn Fein president, speaking in West Belfast before he left for the US, said: “It appears very, very obvious that that May 22 deadline no longer exists.” Asked why, he said: “Because those who have made the Government and the rights and entitlements of voters conditional upon armed groups decommissioning their weapons – and to do so in a certain way, in certain conditions and by a certain time – have totally and absolutely confused and subverted the entire process.”Mr Adams said he did not believe there would be any breakthrough at the talks hosted by President Bill Clinton in the White House.

And he said he was only going to Washington “out of a sense of duty”.Michael McGimpsey, a senior Ulster Unionist Party negotiator and a minister in the short-lived Executive, said: “May 22 is the only firm date that was agreed by all the participants who signed up to the Good Friday Agreement. For Mr Adams now to be stating that this date no longer exists is ridiculous.”If the republican movement is abandoning this important date, then they must be abandoning their support for the Good Friday Agreement.”Peter Mandelson, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, will attend the talks today, determined they are not “just a party”. He will be joined by the Irish Prime Minister, Bertie Ahern, in the dialogue with the leaders of all the pro-agreement partiesThe conflict follows growing Unionist anger at the signals from Dublin that more time will be needed, and that the British Army’s operations in republican areas are a nuisance.The Government has resisted pressure to reduce the Army presence. An Army spokesman said security in South Armagh, the “heartland of terrorism”, was higher than elsewhere because of the continued terrorist threat.. Britain’s first national guide to public sculpture was published yesterday. The time was right, said the English Heritage chairman, Sir Jocelyn Stevens, because we have become “a more visually aware nation”.

Britain’s first national guide to public sculpture was published yesterday. The time was right, said the English Heritage chairman, Sir Jocelyn Stevens, because we have become “a more visually aware nation”.
One of the reasons, he said, was that Antony Gormley’s Angel of the North had inspired vigorous and widespread controversy. Sir Jocelyn said: “Public sculpture is the most celebratory and commemorative of art forms.”The repository of communal memory, the record of heroism, martyrdom or vainglory, it speaks to us more directly than any other element of the historic environment.”A Users Guide to Public Sculpture, produced by English Heritage, gives a region-by-region guide to the most interesting public sculptures on offer with nine sculpture walks in different cities.In the chapter on Bristol, for example, the guide says: “Much of the city’s sculpture is discreet – gently inviting rather than accosting Few grand vistas exist where sculpture dominates. Ancient and modern mingle haphazardly.”Manchester is described as possessing “one of the largest collections of statues and monuments in any provincial British city”.The guide goes on: “As in those other large cities that were the product of the industrial revolution, it was the 19th century which saw the erection of the largest number of outdoor statues.