An exception that proves the rule
The Sunday Telegraph's campaign against squatting can be relaxed when the victim is Saif Gaddafi.
Last week, The Sunday Telegraph launched a campaign to give the owners of squatted houses greater legal powers to regain the quiet enjoyment of their property, rather than stand helplessly by and see it abused and degraded.
There is a legal principle that stands higher than the law, however, and that is justice. So, in the case of the £10 million mansion in Hampstead that belongs to Saif Gaddafi, the heir apparent to the appalling colonel’s tyranny, it seems to us that the protesters who have occupied it in the name of the Libyan people have that principle on their side. May they continue to enjoy its leafy retirement from the turbulent world, its eight bedrooms, swimming pool and sauna, until its wrongful owner has paid the price of his deeds.
A Budget that will bear fruit for businesses
Freeing small businesses from bureaucracy will be vital to a pro-growth Budget.
David Cameron, the Prime Minister, has insisted that his Government will create “the most pro-enterprise, business-friendly environment that Britain has ever had”. Last week, he told his party’s spring conference that the imminent Budget will be “the most pro‑growth Budget this country has seen for a generation”. Similar promises were made by George Osborne, the Chancellor – but it was still unclear what the much-mooted “growth strategy” would actually do to cut red tape and tackle the hundreds of pages of regulation that strangle initiative and prevent businesses from expanding.
Today, this newspaper can provide part of the answer. As we reveal, the Budget is set to be built around that growth strategy – and at its heart are plans to exempt companies with 10 or fewer employees from compliance with the existing, inflexible laws on maternity leave. Instead, small businesses may be given the right to negotiate deals directly with their employees.
There is no doubt that it is very difficult for small companies to comply with the current maternity legislation. Indeed, the law’s rigidity has had the opposite effect to that intended: it has made small firms reluctant to take on young women, for fear that they will soon have to pay them without getting the benefit of their labour. So we applaud the new plans – while accepting that they will be highly controversial. The opposition is likely to come not just from Labour and the trade unions, but from the Tories’ Coalition partners: Nick Clegg has frequently said that he wants to compel firms to provide more paid leave for parents, not less. The European Commission and the Court of Human Rights could also weigh in, by finding that the changes to statutory maternity provision violate “the right to family life”. Then there are the details to consider: among other things, the system will need to include safeguards to prevent firms firing workers purely in order to qualify for the relaxed regime, or not hiring more to remain within its ambit. Yet while the difficulties are likely to be formidable, Mr Cameron and Mr Osborne are certainly right to make the attempt. Small businesses are the engine of the economy, and will be the source of the recovery. Unemployment will remain high for as long as they believe that the risks inherent in creating new jobs are too great to make it worthwhile.
Commendably, the Conservatives are applying this vision of an enterprise economy to Britain’s foreign relations, too. As William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, makes clear in an interview with this newspaper today, there will be a much greater emphasis on promoting British business abroad, and opening up new and emerging markets to British firms. Lord Mandelson, the former business secretary, pointed out in a speech this week that if Britain could increase its share of trade with the fast-growing Bric countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China – to its global average, we would close an “export gap” worth £27 billion.
Not all of the ideas for the Budget will be equally welcome. The plan to make it easier for large companies to build shops and factories on the outskirts of towns sits oddly with the Tories’ campaign against a near-identical proposal by the Labour government. Giving the supermarkets free rein in the name of promoting growth could arouse significant opposition. Still, the signs are encouraging for a Budget that will give British business the help that it needs and deserves.
Dr Claire Chung has a right to be angry
The case of a courageous rape victim raises troubling questions.
Dr Claire Chung is a very remarkable woman. Although she insists she is not “brave”, she has demonstrated extraordinary courage twice over: first in going to the police immediately after she was viciously raped by Stephen Gale, which ensured that he was caught. And second, in meeting her assailant after he had been convicted, and confronting him with the consequences of his crime.
Dr Chung is also angry – not so much with Gale, as with the prison authorities. Gale had a string of convictions for sexual offences, including indecent assault and burglary with intent to rape, when given an 18-month sentence for indecent exposure. Before his release, he had several interviews with psychologists, from whom he successfully concealed, as so many in his position do, that he still harboured the urge to commit violent sexual offences. He completed two rehabilitation courses: within a day of being released, he had committed his terrible crime against Dr Chung.
The prison system’s main aim is meant to be “protecting the public”. Yet all too often, the system fails. We hope that those in the Ministry of Justice who insist that the public can be protected adequately by sending offenders on courses like Gale’s think again: many hundreds of innocent people suffer horrible crimes as a consequence of the mistaken belief that such rehabilitation has rendered criminals “safe”. Then there is the Coalition’s wider desire to clear jail cells of all but the longest-serving prisoners. In 2007, Gale was given an indefinite sentence for raping Dr Chung, but he will be up for release in 2012: his minimum tariff was just five years. Will he be released next year? Given the Government’s new approach to criminal justice, we fear the answer is yes.
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