Law changes for 2017?

[cee-dee]

If you were able, what changes in the Law would you make in the coming year?

Me? Oh thanks for asking...

First one would be, making drunks pay for wasting so much Police time in dealing with them and also making them pay for any hospital time they take up.

Then I'd make all or any occupants of stolen cars pay for the Police time taken up in apprehending them. If they can't pay, then it's jail time plus community work.

If only some (not all) criminals are caught out of a joint enterprise, their sentence should cover every member of the joint enterprise not caught if they won't give the info about those still free.

Over to you......

[soppysofty]

I would certainly make those who believe that a Friday/Saturday night should end up in A & E pay for the privelige.

£250.00 for the ambulance, £185.00 for the A & E triage, £300.00 for the bed and assesment and treatment by a Consultant.

If they pay then all well and good, if not then they should be persued as a debtor through the courts so that the Primary Care Trust can recover thier costs plus fees.

If they pay up then all well and good, if not then they should enjoy a visit from the High Court Enforcement Officers (Sherrifs) to recover the money or seize goods to the value of (their precious car maybe?).

If they have no assests to seize then a bankruptcy order.

So a £30.00 to £50.00 night out could end up costing £735.00 or the loss of their most precious possessions or a bankruptcy order.

How long before people stop drinking and start behaving responsibly? 

Mind you - we need a politician with the backbone to introduce the bill through parliment first.

I can only dream.........

Happy (sober) New Year to all.

[littleme61_6]

I so agree with what has been said. About time real people were listened to as to what is really needed to be changed. All for the better hopefully it would be then. 

One law that springs to mind that should be changed is the sentence given as 'Life in prison' - When  a person has been found guilty and told their crime deserves  life in prison - It should be completely that -  For the rest of their LIFE!. 

[jd.linklater]

It has been illegal to use a hand held mobile phone when driving since 2003, but we still see people ignoring the law on a daily basis. The law as it stands is largely unenforceable and when people are caught the penalties aren't severe enough to stop repeat offenders so I think it's time for a change of tack.

Surely we have the technology to make phones unusable while in a vehicle, it can't be beyond our capabilities to have a signal disabler of some description fitted as an integral part of the electrical circuitry of vehicles. Even using bluetooth hands free systems is distractive when driving so I think the design of current units should be changed by replacing phone keypads with a simple two button system. If you receive a call whilst driving, you can answer the caller by pressing one button and end the call by pressing another. In other words, nobody would be able to make a call without stopping the vehicle and physically removing your phone from the vehicle.

I had a blutooth unit fitted in my last car and they are far from perfect when making outgoing calls. They can store hundreds of numbers but you still need to scroll through them to find the number you want to call. This is far too distracting when driving and takes your eyes off the road for extended periods of time, in fact they are no less distracting than paging through on a phone handset. Far better in my opinion to have a single button in a logical position where it will become as easy to reach as indicator/wiper switches, in that way there is no need to take your eyes off the road to use it.  

[Anonymous]

I think that it has to become law that everyone has to smile as soon as they step out of their house. If you don't and get caught you have to go on a laughing course for a week. 

[evoman3957]

Having spent years working in the criminal justice system, I learnt many things about criminals and people in general.  People never listen to the people who really do know what they are talking about, they'd much rather listen to the ones who tell them what they want to hear. Society is like a child's bedroom, the child has to be constantly nagged to keep it clean and many parents say " it's their bedroom, so if they want to live in a pig sty....it's their problem "...........WRONG......that pig sty of a room is also YOUR room, in YOUR house. The dirtier the room is allowed to get, the longer, the harder and the more time it's going to take to clean it up. In the end, the prospect is so daunting; that the door is just shut and the necessary action is put out of mind.......well guess what, it's not going to go away by itself. The room then becomes infested with vermin and ultimately, that vermin will find it's way out and spread. If society hasn't had the backbone to do what needed to be done up to now, to keep the room clean, they certainly won't have the backbone to put it right. It's about time that people realised that, at the end of the slope they are sliding down, there's a cliff.....not a pit full of cotton wool !!!

[astrologica]

I think a ban on eating in the street would solve a lot of problems, and money. And heavy fines for littering and dropping chewing gum would go a long way towards cleaning up this filthy country. 

[al**bear]

Bosses & Managers to be liable for any criminal activity OF,  or accidents IN their firms

That haulage contractor owner, held liable for the deaths of those children, was a rare occurrence

But BIG Bosses are never brought to Court

Politicians to be treated the same as everyone else under Theresa Mays Orwellian Snoopers Laws - they voted for it, but are exempt for it's powers

Ex-British troops to get the same protection from prosecution, of Historical events in Northern Ireland - if murdering terrorists, have got protection, so should members of our Armed forces and security services

Laws brought in to prevent the Government holding back Legal Aid for Victims of Historical Terrorists Murders

[soppysofty]

A Statute of Limitations.

Meaning an offence ceases to be a prosecutable crime after a set period of time.

Murder 100 years, sex crimes 30 years........

Stops so called 'historical cases' being dragged up.

Be real - can you remember accuratley what you did on Christmas eve?  What about 20 years ago?

[margaret*e]

A good idea in theory, BUT,  abused children grow up.

Terrible though it is to think of, thousands of defencelesschildren are abused by those who should protect them, whether their own parents or professionals.

It may be 30 years or more before they have the courage to speak out against their abusers.

[bankhaunter]

I'd like it to be illegal for anyone to restrict in any way, for any reason, the width of a pavement to less than one metre.

If road works make it necessary, provision must be made to make up for it.

[soppysofty]

Bank, that law already exists under the Highways Act.

The provision is for 42 inches (old law, old measurements).

Find someone to enforce it though!

It is the same with over 95% of our laws.  They exist and are fully enforceable but we no longer have enough enforcement personnel (Police?) to do the job.

Take the use of mobile phones while driving - one camera on top of a bridge over a busy road would result in enough summonses in an hour to bring the local Magistrates system to gridlock.

Maybe that is why we no longer have enforcement.  Not enough people to prosecute and not enough facilities to enforce.

When people are routinely caught and prosecuted, successfully, for an offence it is a known fact that incidents of that offence are dramatically reduced.

We need someone to show some backbone, sack the PC brigade and give us our country back.

I can dream.................

[cee-dee]

"Sack the PC brigade"????

Oh yes, yes, YES please.

[bankhaunter]

Indeed enforcement of lack of it is the problem.

Where I live on a fairly busy narrow one way street, there is a shop with a set back door and at one time the shop owner would park his van on the pavement hard up against the shop front but the set back door would allow him to get out of the van.

Pedestrians however would have to go into the road to get passed and although complained about, there seemed nothing official that could be done about it, or nothing they were willing to do.

[astrologica]

I would like to see a law where the UK brings in a Two child limit per family. This chronic lack of housing is not because we have too few houses, it's because we have TOO MANY PEOPLE! Permission has just been granted for 17 new 'garden villages'. That's a fancy name for 17 new towns, using up more of our precious space. When will we decide we have enough people?  Instead of trying to keep our population at a manageable level, they stick a plaster on the problem by building more houses. It's the same with litter...they either ignore it or spend millions trying to clean it up, instead of tackling the problem at source and having a zero tolerance policy regarding litter. We need a revolutionary government with a backbone to tackle these problems.

[jd.linklater]

This is the latest boy racer craze at Cheddar Gorge. Downhill freewheel racing on trikes in the face of oncoming traffic. Racing on the highway is already against the law but as BH says, where is the enforcement? There are lots of videos of this on youtube and in some the racers are waving at the police as they flash by them.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-england-bristol-38457269

Click on the link Concerns over drift triking craze in Somerset and see how close they come to other vehicles.

[vamo48]

I would like to see tougher penalties for those guilty of deliberate cruelty to animals. Not community service and a few years' ban on ownership.

[lambsy_uk]

Bring back Fox Hunting!

[lambsy_uk]

Every new house built should have at least enough provision for 2 vehicles to park off road, 3 vehicles if a 4 or 5 bed house!

[joe_bloggs*]

No more Hunts,thank you very much!