Saturday, November 20, 2010

Labour MP Eric Joyce banned from driving, spends night in the cells, taken to court in handcuffs and fined £400, drink driving kills, he has no excuse




















Dear All

Recently Labour MP Eric Joyce wrote a piece on a website called Labour Uncut.

It was in part a defence of Phil Woolas who lost his Commons seat for breaking the Representation of the People’s Act by publishing lies about his Lib Dem opponent in a deliberate smear campaign.

You can read the piece by following the link;

http://labour-uncut.co.uk/2010/11/15/liar-know-thyself/

In my words, his ‘defence’ of Phil Woolas can be summed up like this; Phil Woolas’ acts can be mitigated because people commit crime.

To which most right thinking people would say:

‘What!’

The short version of his piece is that Eric Joyce thinks people are hypocrites because they hold elected officials to a higher standard than themselves.

However, the public are right to hold elected officials to a higher standard because we place great trust in their judgement as our advocates.

Everyone in politics starts off with a clean sheet in the public’s mind; it is up to the person to ensure they don’t blot that sheet. Make a mistake, put your hand up and the public will be very forgiving in the most part.

Eric Joyce after he wrote his post attracted a lot of attention for what he said and by his own action subsequently I suspect he probably wishes he never wrote it.

As an MP in the House of Commons, he is involved in passing the laws that govern the UK.

So, I have to express surprise that Labour MP Eric Joyce stepped down as shadow Northern Ireland minister last night after he was banned from driving for a year.

Eric Joyce appeared at Falkirk Sheriff Court handcuffed to a custody officer yesterday where he pled guilty to failing to provide a breath sample to Police.

He was arrested near Grangemouth oil refinery on Thursday and held in custody overnight for his court appearance.

He was fined £400 and banned from driving for a year.

Eric Joyce said:

“I am deeply ashamed of my actions which were unacceptable and inexcusable. I have been incredibly stupid and rightly suffered the penalty for it. I want to apologise unreservedly to those I have let down.”

Police were called when a security guard called them because he believed that Joyce was under the influence of alcohol while driving.

A Labour Party spokesman said:

“Following Eric Joyce’s guilty plea, Ed Miliband has accepted his resignation from the opposition front bench”.

Should further action be taken by the Labour Party?

I would say yes but not for party political reasons, Eric Joyce should have the whip withdrawn for a period of six months.

It is unacceptable that he was driving a car while having alcohol in his blood stream.

Drinking driving kills!

To some extent Eric Joyce is lucky that he didn’t kill someone while at the wheel as it is refusing to give a breath sample is unacceptable behaviour from a person involved in passing laws.

It makes him look like such a hypocrite which he patently despises when he wrote his piece on Labour Uncut.

He has been banned from driving for a year, fined £400 and resigns the Shadow Northern Ireland spokesman.

The Labour Party has to impose a sanction to send out a strong message that this type of behaviour will not be tolerated, six month withdrawal of the whip.

One thing which the public can expect is Eric Joyce’s taxi receipts to increase and he should show he truly is sorry by not claiming for travel within his constituency of Falkirk for the period of the driving ban.

He is paying a heavy price for stupidity but should continue as MP for Falkirk, if he is involved in drink driving again, he should expect to be sent to prison.

I don’t think Eric Joyce will be quibbling about his sentence in the same way he did about Phil Woolas, both caught and both guilty.

I would have expected better from him and hope this never happens again, he has made his mistake, don't make the same one a second time.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

4 comments:

ArtCo said...

I got £450 plus 18 months ban fucking 15 yrs ago surely it should go up with inflation.

PS Never drunk alcohol and driven since, I know , but I was young and this cunts fifty ffs.

galloping major said...

I must admit I was surprised at the leniency of the sentence. Failure to provide a sample is supposed to lead to the conclusion that he was totally blootered and way over the limit.
Plus he got banned for 6 months in 2008 which means that that offence was still on his record under the rehabilitation of offenders rules.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/7647041.stm

Comparing the 24/7 coverage of a Tory Lord over something he said in a restaurant it's surprising that a Shadow Minister gets no coverage on the BBC main website or on any news reports. His story is hidden away in the Scotland section which no one reads south of Glasgow.

ex Falkirk Laddie said...

As a victim of drink related violence, I have no sympathy for Eric Joyce's plight.

He could have killed someone behind the wheel of his car.

A car is a weapon in the wrong hands.

Anonymous said...

I got a £650 fine... banned from driving for a year and had to take a retest... for doing 100MPH on a empty motorway... no alcohol. Now I never driver over any speed limit.

I totally agree with drink driving laws. There are to many examples of uneven justice.