PA Accusations of rape are not always true

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Recently a succession of men has been acquitted by the courts and a judge with 40 years’ experience of legal practice wrote to the CPS to say that a pattern has emerged whereby the parties involved know each other, one or both has been drinking or using drugs and each gives a plausible account as to what happened. There is absolutely no independent evidence so no jury can convict given the requirement of “beyond all reasonable doubt”. The irate judge ends his missive by suggesting that the CPS must have a different interpretation of cases which stands “a realistic prospect of conviction” from everybody else. Instead of explaining why such cases are deemed likely to be successful, Ms Saunders calls such views “victim-blaming” and says they have allowed predators to offend with impunity in the past.

If that is an example of her reasoning and analytical skills then it is a wonder she ever passed a law exam. The judge hasn’t blamed anyone and hasn’t said the complainants were all lying. He has merely pointed out the profound impossibility of establishing the truth in the absence of even a shred of independent evidence. He is wondering how anybody in the CPS can decide that conviction in such circumstances is a realistic prospect.

GETTY So why doesn’t Liz Truss sack her?

The judge hasn’t blamed anyone and hasn’t said the complainants were all lying Ann Widdecombe

I have just finished reading a book called Presumed Guilty, by Simon Warr, a teacher falsely accused of child abuse. He was acquitted by a jury in under 40 minutes – during which time, as he points out, the jurors had also to go the loo, settle in their jury room and elect a foreman. By the end of the book I was shaking with outrage because all the evidence which acquitted him was there from the very start of the police investigation. False accusers are rarely charged with their perjury and enjoy anonymity while their victims are vilified and jobless for months or even years.

Ms Saunders appears to be politicising the justice system. She is wrong and the judge is right. So why doesn’t Liz Truss sack her? Look no further than the Justice Minister’s recent proposals to allow women alleging rape to give pre-recorded evidence. Any minute now they will be insisting every woman’s evidence is credible and true.

PA Alison Saunders was sacked from her position as head of the Crown Prosecution Service

___________________________________________________ Fay Weldon is right about sisterhood Fay Weldon is an unlikely champion of the full-time mother but now she says that feminism has left women worse off and that women who want to stay at home with their children are forced to work through economic pressures. She also claims that modern feminists see themselves as victims. Cue an outcry from the very sisterhood of which Ms Weldon has always been a champion. Fay is right and I am quite certain that the feisty Pankhursts would have utterly despised today’s whingers and whiners, who, having failed to make it on a level playing field, now want the ground tilted in their favour through positive discrimination and all-women shortlists.

GETTY Fay Weldon is an unlikely champion of the full-time mother

___________________________________________________ Fundraiser's fees are OK The online fundraiser JustGiving is like any other organisation, including big charities. It needs to pay staff, managers and accountants and to run a headquarters. Many organisations employ professional fundraisers because they make so much more that way, even after the fees have been deducted.

It was six years before JustGiving made a profit and meanwhile was praised for its innovation. Now, because it is huge and successful, people have started carping that its fees (5 per cent) are excessive. Well, without it charities and one-off fundraising would be hundreds of millions of pounds poorer. Indeed I suspect there are quite a few big charities that would love to be able to guarantee 95 per cent of each and every donation going direct to the cause specified.

___________________________________________________ Why has evil McGuinness been feted? Amid all the heroism and carnage, one image from the recent Westminster atrocity stands out in my mind. It was that of a sea of harmless picture postcards lying on the pavement where the lethal attack began. One moment tourists were browsing through them and smiling and the next moment horror descended.

GETTY Martin McGuinness who led the IRA died naturally and was extensively feted upon death

When the IRA detonated a bomb in Harrods the poor chap who sold hot chestnuts outside was severely injured. Hot chestnuts. Picture postcards. Innocent fun. And into the fun came murder and mayhem. The man who killed happy, innocent holidaymakers last week paid with his life and is universally condemned. Martin McGuinness who led the IRA died naturally and was extensively feted upon death. Odd, isn’t it?

___________________________________________________ Carrying on as normal in the face of an ever-present terror threat The last time I saw PC Keith Palmer was when I was staggering through the security doors near the gates of Parliament laden with bags of gifts from the House of Commons shop for the kids performing in pantomime with me. He was laughing but then all the policemen on the gates laugh. They keep smiling when the thousandth tourist asks for a selfie and when stroppy MPs show irritation at being asked for their passes. They tell MPs when one of their car lights is malfunctioning and if someone has stood for ages on the kerb trying to get a taxi, one of them will calmly walk out into the traffic to hail one.

It is a tedious, repetitive job which they all do with good humour. They do it also knowing that they are in danger. There is nothing new about that. Airey Neave was killed by an IRA bomb planted in the Commons car park in 1979. In 1991 the IRA mortared Downing Street from Whitehall. It could so easily have been Parliament. These days it is Islamic extremism but whenever a terror rages MPs are targets and so are those who protect them.

Victims of the Westminster terror attack Fri, April 7, 2017 The Westminster attack has now killed six people Play slideshow SWNS.com 1 of 11 Andreea Cristea died of her injuries following the Westminster terror attacks

This is policing at its best. PC Keith Palmer had been in the Met for 15 years and was still a PC, the job mattering more than promotion. What a contrast with the senior fools responsible for Operation Midland (the bungled investigation into child abuse). If policemen differ widely from each other so do MPs. Tobias Ellwood walked towards the scene to help but others barricaded themselves in their offices.

How the front pages of newspapers reported the London terror attack Thu, March 23, 2017 Media across Europe, to the USA, the Middle East have paid tribute to the victims Play slideshow 1 of 20

I know with whom I would rather find myself in the trenches. Finally, I have some sympathy with those who thought that the Scottish Parliament should have carried on with its business. During the Conservative Party conference in 1984 the IRA blew up the Grand Hotel in Brighton in an attempt to assassinate Mrs Thatcher. The terrorists killed five people including an MP and the wife of a Cabinet minister. Yet the conference carried on despite the fact that as we assembled we had no idea who was dead, who was injured and who was still missing under the rubble. Carrying on with business as usual is the best riposte to terrorists because it demonstrates that they cannot destroy democracy.

GETTY The aftermath of the Westminster attacks