'Legal aid is not for foreigners to fight cases..'

[richie99]

I'm afraid while lawyers are allowed to completely rip the piss with the cases they are there is no scope for a reasoned public debate on legal aid. Parasitical lawyers can trawl the world offering vast riches to various individuals who have never even heard of the UK. Everyone's a winner, except the UK tax payer.

These lying Iraqis are just the final straw. As for their so-called lawyers, ambulance chasers doesn't even begin to describe them.

[ATG]

SystemParanoia said:

Its a foreign shore.. Why would I care?

Decency perhaps?

[Scuffers]

richie99 said:

I'm afraid while lawyers are allowed to completely rip the piss with the cases they are there is no scope for a reasoned public debate on legal aid. Parasitical lawyers can trawl the world offering vast riches to various individuals who have never even heard of the UK. Everyone's a winner, except the UK tax payer.

These lying Iraqis are just the final straw. As for their so-called lawyers, ambulance chasers doesn't even begin to describe them.

exactly...

as the legal profession seem unable to deal with this themselves, they can hardly be surprised when the rest of us and finally the government decide to do something about it (even if that's barking up the wrong tree?)

all that said, just look how much cash Mrs Blair made from us all once dear hubby signed us up for the EHRC...

[Derek Smith]

richie99 said:

I'm afraid while lawyers are allowed to completely rip the piss with the cases they are there is no scope for a reasoned public debate on legal aid. Parasitical lawyers can trawl the world offering vast riches to various individuals who have never even heard of the UK. Everyone's a winner, except the UK tax payer.

These lying Iraqis are just the final straw. As for their so-called lawyers, ambulance chasers doesn't even begin to describe them.

The thing is that, in comparison to some other systems in the western world, our legal set-up is rather good and against others it is brilliant. Ask yourself where you would prefer to be tried in the event of a serious offence.

Whilst it is true that the legal system, along with most other such institutions, could benefit from a little modernisation and reform, those who have the authority to do so lack any intent. The cutting of the legal aid budget was a farce. It does nothing to stop the freeloaders and penalises those who would be beggared, if that's the right word, by the system. It saves a pittance yet gives the impression of tackling the main problem.

What we need is for the legal system to be modified, not mangled. We need to penalise only the carpet baggers.

[Scuffers]

So we are supposed to tollerate these leaches?

Every day the tv advertising for the leaches that are running up massive bills for the nhs etc...

[Bluebarge]

Scuffers said:

yes, if your not a British citizen or a 100% legal (NOT EU) resident, then no, your not getting access to our public services.

one of the reasons the NHS and education budgets are so screwed up is the mass influx of foreigners that then take full advantage of our 'free' services.

No, I am not xenophobic, I'm just feed up with the UK being taken for a ride by every wafe and stray, we have enough home-grown free-loaders thanks.

Sorry, but this is absolute drivel.

All EU citizens (including you) have the right to live and work anywhere else in the EU and enjoy the same benefits as native citizens of the host country. About 1.8m Brits have taken advantage of this to live elsewhere in the EU, compared with about 2.4m EU citizens living in the UK. The vast majority of EU citizens living in the UK move here to work, and pay taxes here. A large proportion of the Brits elsewhere in the EU are retirees, who are heavy users of local health services. Up to 1m of these are in Spain alone.

The idea that Britain is somehow being taken for a ride because EU citizens exercise the same rights that you have, is nonsense. Most EU citizens here are contributors to H.M. Treasury, most Brit retirees abroad will be tipping very little into the local coffers.

The NHS budget is not screwed up because of "foreigners", it is screwed up because increasing numbers of elderly people are being kept alive with expensive treatments that were not available 20-30 years ago. At the same time, a falling birth-rate meant that there would be fewer wage-earners around to pay for the burden of a large elderly population (pension and health costs) - the increased immigration in recent years has actually helped to pay for the NHS by ensuring that the demographic balance has shifted - we now have more young people of working age to pay for the oldies.

Re Education - there is no problem - there are local pressures where schools may need to be expanded, but overall the biggest change in recent years has been the over-expansion of higher education, which has pushed many young people into studying for pointless qualifications at considerable cost to themselves. That has naff all to do with immigration.

People who say "I'm not [....] but," usually are, and I don't think you are any exception. I really would recommend that you make the most of your EU freedoms and spend a bit of time in another EU country - it would broaden your horizons. Sitting at home and blaming "blummin' furriners" for every evil under the sun is a waste of a life.

[longblackcoat]

Bluebarge said:

Scuffers said:

yes, if your not a British citizen or a 100% legal (NOT EU) resident, then no, your not getting access to our public services.

one of the reasons the NHS and education budgets are so screwed up is the mass influx of foreigners that then take full advantage of our 'free' services.

No, I am not xenophobic, I'm just feed up with the UK being taken for a ride by every wafe and stray, we have enough home-grown free-loaders thanks.

Sorry, but this is absolute drivel.

All EU citizens (including you) have the right to live and work anywhere else in the EU and enjoy the same benefits as native citizens of the host country. About 1.8m Brits have taken advantage of this to live elsewhere in the EU, compared with about 2.4m EU citizens living in the UK. The vast majority of EU citizens living in the UK move here to work, and pay taxes here. A large proportion of the Brits elsewhere in the EU are retirees, who are heavy users of local health services. Up to 1m of these are in Spain alone.

The idea that Britain is somehow being taken for a ride because EU citizens exercise the same rights that you have, is nonsense. Most EU citizens here are contributors to H.M. Treasury, most Brit retirees abroad will be tipping very little into the local coffers.

The NHS budget is not screwed up because of "foreigners", it is screwed up because increasing numbers of elderly people are being kept alive with expensive treatments that were not available 20-30 years ago. At the same time, a falling birth-rate meant that there would be fewer wage-earners around to pay for the burden of a large elderly population (pension and health costs) - the increased immigration in recent years has actually helped to pay for the NHS by ensuring that the demographic balance has shifted - we now have more young people of working age to pay for the oldies.

Re Education - there is no problem - there are local pressures where schools may need to be expanded, but overall the biggest change in recent years has been the over-expansion of higher education, which has pushed many young people into studying for pointless qualifications at considerable cost to themselves. That has naff all to do with immigration.

People who say "I'm not [....] but," usually are, and I don't think you are any exception. I really would recommend that you make the most of your EU freedoms and spend a bit of time in another EU country - it would broaden your horizons. Sitting at home and blaming "blummin' furriners" for every evil under the sun is a waste of a life.

Can you take your informative and well-argued post and dump it somewhere? We don't need sense to pollute our threads, y'know.

[anonymous-user]

Scuffers, it was in fact a Tory Government that signed the UK up to the ECHR (most of which was drafted by a Tory politician/jurist). A bit of fact checking would have shown that. The Blair Government enacted the HRA, but British cases had been going to the Court in Strasbourg for some decades already. Contrary to popular myth, Cherie did not do that many cases under the HRA. The idea that the HRA was some sort of birthday present from Blair to his wife makes for a good sound bite but does not reflect the reality.

More fact checking 101: the legal profession does not run the legal system or the legal aid system. The Government does. Opinions are great, but informed opinions are greater.

[Scuffers]

Would help if you read what I said rather than what you think I said.

[10 Pence Short]

Scuffers said:

all that said, just look how much cash Mrs Blair made from us all once dear hubby signed us up for the EHRC...

There's a clear inference here, with the use of 'Mrs' and 'dear hubby', that you believe Blair had personal motives for the creation of the Human Rights Act.

[Derek Smith]

Scuffers said:

So we are supposed to tollerate these leaches?

Every day the tv advertising for the leaches that are running up massive bills for the nhs etc...

What I was suggesting was 'baby/bathwater' sort of thing.

There is another way of viewing this. There is a common saying that it is better for 99 guilty persons to be found not guilty than for one innocent person to be convicted. Whilst there is an argument against this, it has a certain truth. Or, to put it another way, every system has a cost.

We have a free press, thankfully as it is essential in a free society, but this includes the 'tabloids'. A cost that, whilst it might irritate, is proportionate to the benefits.

However, there are improvements that could be brought in to lower the cost, in more ways than one, of the legal system.

[Scuffers]

Derek Smith said:

We have a free press, thankfully as it is essential in a free society, but this includes the 'tabloids'. A cost that, whilst it might irritate, is proportionate to the benefits.

do we though?

free from whom?

(same with the BBC, they are all as politically biased as each other)

[santona1937]

you cannot start blaming the problems within the UK legal system on immigration, how many problems do immigrants have to answer for? UK infrastructure would be in trouble regardless of immigrants, years and years of systemic neglect have seen to that.
I am one of those Brits that lives and works outside the UK, within the EU, and I have full access to all the social services provided to French citizens. I would hope the same would apply to EU citizens in the UK, including access to the full range of the UK legal system and legal aid if required.

[davepoth]

Look at this picture.



She can't read your passport.

[ClaphamGT3]

Scuffers said:

Would help if you read what I said rather than what you think I said.

But how do we address the fact that, ignoring that it reads less well than if my six year old daughter had written it, what you say is absolute gibberish?

[Derek Smith]

davepoth said:

Look at this picture.



She can't read your passport.

The one at Old Bailey can though.

[davepoth]

Derek Smith said:

davepoth said:

Look at this picture.



She can't read your passport.

The one at Old Bailey can though.

Apparently her impartiality is guaranteed by her maidenly form.

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=trgG0BAQ4xkC&am...

In any case, she'd need binoculars to check your papers from all the way up there; it's not happening.

[league67]

ClaphamGT3 said:

Scuffers said:

Would help if you read what I said rather than what you think I said.

But how do we address the fact that, ignoring that it reads less well than if my six year old daughter had written it, what you say is absolute gibberish?

Harsh.

[NicD]

but not true.

[NicD]

but not true.