Solicitors’ Firms like most businesses are preparing to get staff back in to the office, or they have already done so. Therefore it’s very interesting that a cross-party group of MPs has recently criticised the Government for ‘blurring the line between guidance and law’. Actually, this is a common problem in law known as ‘glossing’. A piece of legislation comes out (based upon Parliament’s interpretation of the will of the people), whereas us lawyers put our own interpretation on it! No wonder Shakespeare said ‘kill all the lawyers!’
Obviously no one will shed a tear for those who deliberately flout laws designed to keep us all safe. So I give no consideration to the ‘celebrity’ who had a party in the middle of lock-down or the idiots who refused to wear face coverings in public spaces. Throw the book at them as far as I am concerned!
A little more concerning however is the police heavy-handedness on 2 friends meeting in the park, or even law-abiding citizens coming in to work when they are clearly not a ‘key workers’. Here I join in the chorus of those who say ‘Haven’t the police got anything better to do?’
The House of Commons Justice Select Committee has acknowledged that several of the new ‘Covid-19 offences’ have resulted in wide-spread confusion. Now there’s a surprise! Every now and again lawyers are accused of not even being able to organise a certain genre of party in a brewery. Thankfully, most of those lawyers are Government lawyers and not us little guys at the coal-face!! Cheers to common sense!
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