Dale Farm – Has there been a Bumble?

Dale Farm as seen on my TV

Procrastinations and innumerable appeals regarding the rights of travellers at Dale Farm, Basildon, Essex, has in my view brought the law into disrepute. This situation of evictions from illegal plots at Dale Farm has been ongoing for ten years. The possible total cost of evicting travellers who have broken the law is reputed to be in the region of £22,000,000. Eviction will entail removing caravans and certain structures, before returning the land to Greenbelt status. Police and other agencies involved will all have to be paid for from a stash of money that has been set aside from local and governmental taxes, gathered in the main from law-abiding citizens.

Today's paper

At long last, the Courts have ruled in favour of Basildon Council, the members by a majority vote agreed to carry out the sanctions, most likely making a start on Monday, 17th October, but I understand there could yet be a final appeal on behalf of the travellers to the Court of Appeal. Previous court rulings have confirmed that a certain number of them broke the law by illegally setting up properties and structures on Greenbelt land, but each time evictions were scheduled, further successful challenges prevented bailiffs from doing their work.


We can be thankful that we live in a land (UK) governed by a Parliament, subject to the rule of law, but when the law is paralyzed by intricacies preventing it from working effectively, the saying of Mr Bumble in Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist, “The Law is an Ass”, is truly pertinent. Parliament, must of needs review what has happened, and come up with a remedy to prevent similar situations arising again. No more bumbles, please.



Text for the Day

Matthew 5:17, 18“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law of the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfil. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.”



Links


Phrases – ‘The Law is an Ass’

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/the-law-is-an-ass.html


Court of Appeal

http://www.justice.gov.uk/guidance/courts-and-tribunals/courts/court-of-appeal/civil-division/index.htm


Dale Farm Travellers Lose Eviction Battle in High Court

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/oct/12/dale-farm-travellers-lose-court?newsfeed=true