Only in Britain

A judge at Manchester Crown Court has overturned a sentence of electronic tagging imposed on a 66-year old petshop owner, and a sentence of 120 hour community service imposed on her son, by Trafford magistrates.

Her offence? Selling a goldfish to a tall 15-year old, when the legal age for goldfish purchase is 16.

Judge Adrian Smith said that the tagging of a 'respectable lady with no previous convictions' had been 'inappropriate'. God, how sick of that mealy-mouthed word I am!

The sting (the boy was sent in by agents of the trading standards quango) that started this whole ball rolling was a classic example of bureaucratic petty Hitlerism, the fact that it went to the Magistrates Court was a staggering waste of judicial resources, and the sentences were a travesty.

I'm more than ever convinced that the only way out of this is to make individual bureaucrats pay a personal penalty for their abuse of authority. If the law won't do it, then maybe citizens should make their disapproval felt by direct action.