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A judge in Manchester, England, yesterday criticised the Crown Prosecution Service for bringing a case against a ten year old boy who allegedly shouted racist insults at another boy in a school playground.

District Judge Jonathon Finestein, said that in his view the case should not have reached the courts, concluding that the decision to prosecute appeared to be “political correctness gone mad”.

Ordering the Crown Prosecution Service to think again, Judge Finestein said that when he was at school other pupils would call him fat, but that did not amount to a criminal offence. In the old days the headmaster would have given them “a good clouting" and sent them on their way.

“Have we really got to the stage where we are prosecuting ten year old boys because of political correctness?” he said. “Does this amount to a criminal offence? It is crazy. Nobody is more against racist abuse than me, but these are boys in a playground.”

He went on: “This is how stupid the whole system is getting. If you get your car stolen it does not matter, but you get two kids falling out because of racist comments. This is nonsense.”

A spokeswoman for Greater Manchester Police said: “We take all reports of crime seriously and remain totally opposed to racism in any form. We will continue to take appropriate action against anyone found to be acting in a racist manner.”

Considering that the two boys involved are now friends, and the judge displayed considerably more common sense than the police and the CPS, one might have expected and hoped that to be the end of the matter.

But no. Today teachers have criticised the judge for 'trivialising' racial abuse, accusing him of being out of date.

"What the judge is saying is that the two children should have just had their heads knocked together. He needs telling that it’s no longer within the control of the school to handle incidents of racial bullying," said Judith Elderkin of the National Union of Teachers.

It seems to me the people needing their heads knocked together here are the teachers, the CPS and the police, in the vain hope it might knock some sense and imagination into them.


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