Rumpole and the Asbo

John Mortimer, creator of the fictional lawyer Horace Rumpole, is confronting the legal injustice of the asbo in his next book: "I'm going to call the book The Antisocial Behaviour of Horace Rumpole," says Sir John. "What matters to Rumpole and to me is that this government has brought in a law which means that children can be sent to prison for something that isn't a criminal offence and without having a trial. It doesn't matter how much ministers say Asbos are working, the fact is they don't represent justice."
Read the full story in the Independent:
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/article2108201.ece

Great Britons

also in the Independent comedian Mark Steel presents his list of the 12 greatest Britons as an alternative to the Conservative Party's recent list:
"Hardly anyone now suggests Britain is created just by the British. Beethoven, Bob Marley, Dante, James Joyce, Jesus and whoever invented the panini all shaped our culture more than most Englishmen. Nonetheless, if the Tories really want to big up an English crew for the times, here are my suggestions for the people they could choose":
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article2106004.ece
(n.b. a slight layout problem on the Independent's website joins the Conservative list onto the end of Mark's)