Justice? For Whom?

There's a BBC video here (1m 46s) that shows the Labour administration at its most spiteful.

Blackpool Council tried to take away a publican's licence for ignoring the smoking ban. They were rightly told they were acting beyond their powers by local magistrates so, financed by council taxpayers' cash, they took the case to the High Court in London ... backed by the Government.

Yesterday afternoon, Hamish Howitt's licence was cancelled on the strange reasoning that he failed to prevent "crime and disorder" in his pub.

Watch the video and see if you can spot the crime or the disorder. All I could see was a business willingly providing a service, customers happily and contentedly enjoying the service, and long-serving staff who are happy to be part of it.

Surely for a crime to exist there needs to be a victim? Before this judgement, there were no victims. There are now though, as staff who the Government said they were 'protecting' have lost their livelihood, customers are denied a service they wish to enjoy, plus taxpayers in Blackpool have also lost out as the Court ruled that costs would be borne by the jobsworths at the council.

How ironic that a Government that has disastrously failed to prevent crime and disorder should be taking this approach. Commit real crime and you get counselling and a hi-viz 'payback' jacket. Be hard-working, hurt no-one, and provide a service with which all parties are happy, and you lose your business.

I know who should have been in the dock yesterday, and it ain't Hamish Howitt.

UPDATE: More detail here.