Lord Justice Sedley - needs to retire.

Well, get this chap. He has come to the opinion that everyone should be on the DNA database and thinks that it will be fairer.

In a twisted turn of logic he argues that there are innocent people on the DNA database and that is wrong, so in order to resolve that we should all have our DNA added to the database.

There has already been criticism of the database - the largest in the world - because people who are found innocent usually cannot get their details removed.

Get this one: "We have a situation where if you happen to have been in the hands of the police then your DNA is on permanent record. If you haven't, it isn't." True and if the law was amended to match that of Scotland where DNA samples taken when people are arrested must be destroyed if the individual is not charged or convicted.

That would at a stroke resolve the issues that most people have with the DNA database. In short the only people left on it would be those who have been convicted of a crime.

But he gets better: "It means where there is ethnic profiling going on disproportionate numbers of ethnic minorities get onto the database."

So what evidence has he got that pc plod and the powers that be are watching out for those who have a touch of the tar brush about them? Again the way most people end up on the database is through ending up (for whatever reason) in a policestation and I shall use the old phrase "helping the police with their enquires" Is he saying that large numbers of "ethnic minorities" are helping the police with their enquiries?

His arguement continues: "It also means that a great many people who are walking the streets and whose DNA would show them guilty of crimes, go free."

He said he knew of cases where a serious offender, who had escaped conviction, had ultimately been brought to justice by DNA evidence that may have been otherwise destroyed.

Well thats as maybe, but to put all of us on the database is not an answer. Not a fair one for the majority of law abiding citizens who will see themselves as being suspects, no longer innocent in the eyes of the law until proven otherwise.

And what do you do with people who refuse to hand over DNA samples? Charge them, thus making them a criminal and so we have a catch 22 situation.

Home Office Minister Tony McNulty said there were no plans to introduce DNA profiling for everyone in the UK, but "no-one ever says never".

Tony Lake, chief constable of Lincolnshire Police and chairman of the DNA board, said the DNA of people convicted or arrested for violent or sex offences should remain on the database for life, but that need not be the case for minor offences.

**Time Lord Justice Sedley retired to the Lords, or just retired. Any chance we can get an amendment through The House that we can elect our judges?

Mr Eugenides hits the nail firmly on the head with this gem

"Because the government is fucking some people in the ass, fairness demands that it should fuck us all in the ass."
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