A Spectator's Notebook
The press of the world very properly gave credit to the great tradition of British jurisprudence that resulted in an Indian judge giving judgMent against his own Prime Minister, Mrs Gandhi. On the other hand, the decision of the Bow Street magistrate, now confirmed by a High Court judge, to refuse bail to the wretched Mr John Stonehouse makes it difficult to I2elieve that British justice would stand up as nrMly before the political will, if anything like the Indian experience happened here. There is not the smallest shred of evidence that Mr Stonehouse would or could abscond before his trial if he were set at liberty. Further, a wen-wisher has offered to stand surety for t2, 50,000 — a sum greatly in excess of that Claimed by his creditors, which should ensure that they, at least, would not lose, whatever Might occur. There is not, of course, any direct connection between the executive and the judiciary in this ne?tintrY, thank heaven, but that is only a crumb comfort when an elected Member of 'ornament who may have something inconvenient to say in the sanctuary of the House can oe temporarily gagged in this way. The memory of the Stephen Ward tragedy is still too fresh in the public mind for this weekend's decisions to be comforting.
Igrillie of the century
The Crime of the. Century' is a potboiler, Written by Kingsley Amis, that is being rrialised in the Sunday Times. The attraction • c't' anyone who can get through Amis's Probably dialogue is the chance to pick one's n't1 culprit and compare one's answer with the 4_oluti0n that the author has, presumably, already written. There is a prize worth £500. you win — firmly reject it in favour of cash. are offering a Phillips video recorder „ained at £500". We have such a machine here The Spectator; "as new"; "unmarked"; n'unused." We would let it go for £400, ,articularly as it cost £345. 11ortugal and the BBC vat G vat G „ erard Mansell, managing director of the 11,1C External Services, has been quick to admit at tWo members of his Portuguese section have lapsed from those professional standards of impartiality, for which the overseas service has had some reason to be proud, by showing anti-socialist and, pro-communist bias over the conflict in Portugal. However, there are still grounds for disquiet. For some reason, Mr Mansell refuses to release the names of those responsible or to undertake that they are to be dismissed from such delicate positions. Meanwhile, Mr Mansell might well spend some time developing a system for invigilating overseas broadcasts to sensitive areas, in addition to the security screening of the foreign personnel they are obliged to employ.
Self help
Dr Kenneth Mellanby, author of the book, Can Britain Feed Itself?, and a former head of the Monks Wood experimental station in Huntingdonshire, argued in a speech last weekend that agricultural policy should be directed towards a greater direct consumption of grain products and the maintenance of grassland farming for livestock. He is now sensibly suggesting that a lower consumption of sugar is desirable, and that £2,000 million a year would be saved through greater home production of agricultural products, coupled with a degree of food rationing. The rather obvious reasons that he gives for rationing are the lowering of pressure on wages and on farm prices, and to ensure adequate diet and improvement in the country's health. Equally obviously, our membership of the EEC will ensure that plans of this nature do not mature and that the bottled-up desire on the part of the citizen to follow the Government's recent 'Dig for Victory' White Paper is restricted to sowing a few seeds in the back garden and keeping a few hens to eat the household scraps. Since we are unlikely to be encouraged to become more than allotment holders and backyard chicken-keepers, I took it on myself to talk to a Mr David Bland of Southern Pullet Rearers, of Storrington in Sussex, the other day. Mr Bland has been producing an enterprising scheme alongside his normal pulletrearing business. For less than £50, he supplies a 'kit' consisting of a small henhouse, water trough, seed dispenser and six point-of-lay birds suitable for the smallest suburban back patch. It did not surprise me when he told me that business was booming and that he has produced a booklet, 'Poultry for the Garden', at 45p post paid. I have a mind to try a small henhouse on my roof in Mount Street.
On the record
Under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act that has come into force, a person is supposed to be able to be helped to live down his past by being protected from the public disclosure of previous convictions which, under the terms of the Act, have become 'spent' according to the severity of the original sentence and the length of rehabilitation that has ensued. So far as it affects a jury in a subsequent case, this appears to be an admirable reform, though that is not the intention — which is to provide a basis for a fresh start. However, the random way in which reports and photographs of the accused at his first trial are used appears to need examination if the intentions of the Act are to be achieved. A brutal murderer may be arrested and sentenced to a long prison spell without a photograph appearing and perhaps only a small note on the inside page of a national newspaper. When, after several years, he is released the crime has been forgotten. A professional man commits some misdemeanour, or steals a few books, suffering ruin and ignominy beyond his punishment through the rules of Fleet Street newsworthiness. There appears to be a case for reversing the principles in the recent Act and making criminal records freely available but “ )::•bly to anyone inquisitive enough to be interested; the argument being that the punishment is the punishment, and that the ignominy factor should be devalued — as to some extent it has been in Sweden, where prison sentences are ruthlessly imposed for such relatively minor crimes as drinking while driving. A convicted person would not continue to hope, as he does at present, that his friends and acquaintances did not know of his past, though he would readily admit to his record. And the police, who at present have ready access to information from the Criminal Records Office and do not conceal their knowledge from suspects, would have removed from them the temptation to a particularly despicable form of blackmail when investigating someone who, to his neighbours, appears a pillar of rectitude.,
Post haste
The Post Office losses, like those of British Steel Corporation and, to a more modest extent, those of Keyser Ullman the bankers, are of the sort to produce a low whistle. The Post Office, or at least Sir William Rylands, its head, has said that he is generally in favour of hiving the Post Office from the telecommunications system. Fine. But surely they should go further. All messages might, as far as possible, be sent by telephone, or through the telephone system, by facsimile transmission from user to user, or user to local collection point (which would probably be the local post office). Xerox, Plessey and Muirheads, and no doubt many other firms make small transceivers for pictures and written messages via the telephone system. The mails would be reserved for the carrying of parcels, small packages and original material, this service being possibly amalgamated at some time in the future with the railways-or the National Freight Corporation to produce a fully integrated system of national delivery at various levels.
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