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Anonymity Reprieve for Carr

SHOULD mendacious Maxine Carr, notoriously distasteful and Machiavellian girlfriend of Soham murderer, Ian Huntley, be entitled to anonymity on her release from prison? Aye there's the rub. From an emotional standpoint and judging by the audience of BBC TV's Question Time on Thursday night, most Britons would quite happily see her burnt at the stake or used as a fox stand-in for frustrated and redundant hunt beagles. I don't like the cut of her jib either but I do not believe that two wrongs make a right. What Maxine Carr did was despicable and unforgivable, nay inhuman. To have perverted the course of justice in a case where two innocent children were butchered at the hands of a perverted psychotic is so base and grotesque as to defy belief. No doubt about it, Maxine Carr committed the most heinous crime but can we, as a thinking society, throw her literally - to the wolves? There is quite substantial evidence to suggest that once released and left to her own devices, retaining her own identity and attempting to lead a normal life, that she would be bumped off within a few weeks. Do we care if that really happened? Frankly, no. She knew what she was doing and got what she deserved, simple as that. On the other hand, are we then as guilty as she and her paramour of committing a horrific and unlawful act? In fairness to the government, there was no option. It had to grant her anonymity. It would have been deeply irresponsible of a so-called caring and thinking society to allow this weak and malleable woman to meet a grisly fate at the hands of vigilantes and revenge seekers. Loathe and despise her as we might, could we honestly have condoned her murder?

What is galling is the amount of money and resources being wasted on her. If the figures being quoted are true, it is a travesty of justice that she should cost the taxpayer a potential 50 million pounds to remain in safe anonymity for the rest of her life. In the government's position I would have offered her anonymity, a modest lump sum and entre to some kind of employment. After that she would have been on her own and if she'd taken her own life or gone quietly mad, I'm afraid that would have been her own decision. Now, unlike the young victims of her deranged boyfriend, she has her whole life to live. She is being offered a new start, a bag of cash and a new identity. If she doesn't make something of her life she only has herself to blame, and if she meets a sad, inglorious and wretched end, then so be it.

Black Day for Britain

AS soon as our government starts introducing new race relations laws inevitably laced with politically correct hemlock, you know you're in trouble. This week there has been a bungling, covert police investigation into a traditional Cornish festival, known as Darkie Days, where locals rub their faces with boot polish and sing a few songs around the locale and raise charity funds. This festival dates back to medieval times and has more to do with travelling mummers than black mamas. Even so, the Cornwall Racial Equality Council, in its infinitive wisdom, has decreed that the event is inciting racial hatred. No one has ever complained about the event to the Commission for Racial Equality and no person of ethnic origin who has witnessed the event has ever considered it racist. Meanwhile, thousands of pounds have been wasted on a farcical Dogberry and Verges operation where two local coppers made a supposedly secret video of the festival-in full view of the cheerful, compliant and welcoming minstrels which they have submitted to the Crown Prosecution Services. The sheer stupidity and absurdity in pursuing cases like this make you want to weep or laugh hysterically. It is as if our country has taken an enormous amount of opium and taken a trip to a madhouse. As a country we are giving away our sovereignty, heritage and decision making to fat cat Eurocrats in Brussels while at the same time annihilating all the values and traditions Britain used to hold dear. Soon there will be nothing left of a once great country to pick over. We might as well bury the carcass now.

Londoners on renewed terrorist alert

IT'S been a cold and snowy week in London and probably because of that there's been a good deal of cheer on the streets. Restaurants and bars are full to busting point and people arrive at eateries with rosy cheeks and swathed like mummies in woolly scarves and coats, ready to devour anything hot and savoury on the table as well as a few warming glasses of vino tinto. I have spent most nights meeting with chums and colleagues to discuss the latest London tittle-tattle and political intrigues. Inevitably the subject of the Royal Wedding is a hot topic but more so now there is the scare mongering from the chief of the Metropolitan Police about a possible terrorist attack. I do wonder why the Met Police issue these stark prophecies. What on earth are they hoping to achieve? The populace can do nothing but sit and fret or make sure they give Windsor a wide berth on the day of the big event. Then there is the prophesied threat of terrorism during the election campaign. Once again Londoners are becoming jittery, ready for the next waive of false alerts on the tube and trains, and watchful of anyone swarthy sitting across from them in Starbucks reading the Koran. I see absolutely nothing fruitful in causing alarm to the general public when the poor dupes can do nothing about it. Or could this whole scare campaign possibly have something to do with Presidente Blair's wish to rush through house arrest without trial in Britain. Surely even our esteemed Prime Minister couldn't act so cynically?

Paying price for a Cuppa

IT'S good to know where taxpayers' money is really being used efficiently and by that, of course, I mean in our law courts. Just this week a case was brought against a vagrant who broke into a primary school in Henley-on-Thames and made himself a cup of tea. At huge cost, a case was filed and the guilty party was made to stand trial for stealing a tea bag worth less than one pence. The final crowning glory is that he is unlikely to be prosecuted on the grounds that although he used the teabag he didn't actually take it with him when he left the premises. This high-powered trial will continue next month. Whoever said the law was an ass?