I sang it twelve years ago (and put it on here); almost nobody believed me. Now David Lammy says it officially; a truly dreadful situation where thousands of innocent people plead guilty to get lesser sentences, fearing that otherwise they will be wrongfully convicted (as I was) of crimes that never took place (as mine didn't).

JK2006 wrote:
I sang it twelve years ago (and put it on here); almost nobody believed me. Now David Lammy says it officially; a truly dreadful situation where thousands of innocent people plead guilty to get lesser sentences, fearing that otherwise they will be wrongfully convicted (as I was) of crimes that never took place (as mine didn't).

And it justifies the immoral methods used to get the convictions, if people think more are guilty than really are.

Good point Honey; and I was horrified by how many people I met in prison who could not read or write. As it happened that enabled me to help many inmates, writing and reading letters for them, to and from their loved ones (as a result several wives, children, including teenage boys, rushed up to me in Visitors Rooms and hugged, kissed and thanked me - which I found as odd as a Salvador Dali painting). But if they could not read or write how could they understand Archibald and the incomprehensible language of law. Yet another aspect of our broken society I have tried to change for 17 years; I gather my Inside Time columns are read out by other prisoners to those who cannot read.

JK2006 wrote:
But if they could not read or write how could they understand Archibald...

Maybe dear old Archibald speaks in the same kind of opaque language you find in the pages of Archbold and that's why people can't understand him...

That's spellcheck 4 u.

Would be fun to type passages from Archbold into Google translate and see if they make sense in any language.

Although I must point out that Archbold itself is not the problem. The tome presents the material in a reasonably straightforward way. The problem is the doggerel that comes out of the mouths of judges. Some of the quoted blathering sounds like they're reciting lines from Monty Python. Expressing yourself in a verbose, convoluted way evinces a disordered mind. Therefore they should all be shot and I'll be in charge.