Magistrates find Police untrustworthy and Government guilty of deliberate lies

Heh, heh, heh. We've raised an eyebrow in the past when members of the establishment (especially inside Westminster) brazenly said they didn't trust the police or the courts...

It seems they're not alone - and to some degree, the feelings mutual...

The Magistrates Association aren't entirely enamored with the police (or government) either. In fact, in an extraordinary press release they "vehemently oppose" trusting them even with issuing a fixed penalty notice for careless driving,

"Regrettably, recent experience... shows the Police cannot be relied on to use them appropriately or as intended. Once they've been given these powers, the police will misuse them, that is a certainty,".

They then go on to give the government a thoroughly good kicking...

"This is a proposal that places the convenience of the police above what is right in principle..."

and on the government's use of this quote to support their proposals, "seven out of eleven magistrates and six out of ten judges surveyed were in favour" the magistrates responded,

"How these eleven magistrates were selected and precisely what they were asked is not stated. Judges do not deal with careless driving offences except a limited number on appeal. To prefer a six year old unreferenced and frankly meaningless survey to the currently expressed views of a magistrates specialist committee is to seriously mislead the readers of the document about the views of magistrates, and it is difficult to regard this as anything other than deliberate"

You know you're up shit creek when the Magistrates Association accuses the government (in a press release !!) of deliberately lying.