JUDGE'S PARTING SHOT
Retirement Attack On 'Creeping PC' As Guide Says
Be Lenient On Drug Rastas

A retiring Old Bailey judge yesterday attacked 'political
correctness', days after new guidelines recommended courts be lenient
on cannabis users who say they are Rastafarians.

Judge Henry Pownall, 72, made his comments yesterday as he stepped
down after a career spanning 45 years.

He said: 'Too much political correctness destroys rather than promotes
good relations of all sorts. I find it sad, even disturbing, that
political correctness in all its horrid forms is creeping into all our
everyday lives.'

Judge Pownall's comments came only two days after the Lord Chancellor,
Lord Irvine, caused a furore when he launched new guidelines for the
courts designed to raise their knowledge of ethnic groups.

Critics were particularly appalled at suggestions the judicial system
should be lenient on cannabis users who professed to being
Rastafarians because using the drug was part of their reilgion. They
were also angered at instructions - outlined in the Equal Treatment
Bench Book - to beware of using the word 'British'.

Home Secretary Jack Straw became involved in the row, remarking that
he did not agree with the guidelines after he first became aware of
them in the Daily Mail.

While Judge Pownall did not refer to the guidelines directly, his
comments will add to the growing condemnation.

The judge departed from a personal and light-hearted leaving speech in
Court One to say that there were those who would find prejudice round
every corner, whether or not it existed or was intended.

He said: 'It is time someone says there is none of it here in this
building, in any of us.

'I find it sad, even offensive, being bombarded by bumph from on high,
telling me I must disclose any personal interest which might be seen
to have some effect on my judgment - as if I had not conformed since
pupillage.'

The guidelines, issued the same day that Tony Blair condemned the evil
of drugs at the Labour conference, will be sent to every judge in
England and Wales.

They say that knowledge of minority beliefs 'can help judges
understand why particular actions were taken or not taken' and that
awareness of a 'person's reilgion is an integral element of being
aware of equal treatment issues'.

Lord Irvine said the book was 'not about political correctness,
preaching or moralising', but was intended to inform and assist
judges. The Lord Chancellor had disclosed that five judges had been
repriranded for unacceptable racial comments since the Government came
to power in May 1997.

One of the cases referred to anonymously was that of an Old Bailey
judge, Graham Boal, who allegedly made an offensive joke at a legal
dinner earlier this year.

Lord Irvine said judges exercised 'huge power' and had a 'special
responsibility to ensure that there can be no possible reason to think
us prejudiced'.