Baroness Scotland: Far Worse than a Hypocrite

So, Baroness Scotland has accepted her £5000 fine for employing an illegal worker. Handy word that; "accepted". Does that mean she had a choice? Does that mean the rest of us have a choice when it comes to fixed penalty notices?

Shes made much of the fact that by accepting the fixed penalty, its a civil rather than a criminal offence. However, its now come to light she DOES have a criminal offence to her name, for careless driving. As an aside, I love at the end how the spokesperson is quoted as saying “It was over 20 years ago, it is just ridiculous.”. If the offence was in 1991, thats not quite 20 years ago yet. Maths obviously isn't a requisite for joining the civil service.

Put these together and you get a feel for the hypocritical nature of a person that makes laws but can't follow them herself, who applied for and got the highest legal position, despite having a criminal conviction. Add to that, the allegations she wrongfully pocketed £170,000 in expenses, and you really get a flavour of her real character.

Do I think she should stay in her position? No I don't. Someone in the highest legal position in the land should not be seen to just follow the spirit of the law, they should follow the law to the letter, crossing every "t" and dotting every "i" as they go. If its not good enough for the rest of us to plead ignorance of the law, its absolutely not good enough for someone who was involved in making that law to plead it.
Someone in the highest legal position in the land should not have a criminal conviction either, whatever the circumstances are of how they gained it. The fact is they have fallen foul of the law at some point and therefore have no regard for it.
They can argue until they are blue in the face about how minor the offences were, but the rest of us suffer the consequences of these "minor offences" for years after the fact: just ask anyone that has had a CRB check, or has applied for an insurance policy.

For Baroness Scotland to shrug these transgressions off as nothing, shows she is woefully out of touch about how the laws SHE is making affect the rest of us.

If she shows that level of hypocrisy for the law and the public she supposedly serves, she should not be her position and should have either resigned or have been sacked.