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Tony Blair Felt 'Very Sorry' for Jailed Airgun Teacher
Scotsman.com ^ | 4/21/05 | Joanne Clements

Posted on 04/23/2005 9:51:07 AM PDT by kiriath_jearim

6:34pm (UK)

Blair Felt 'Very Sorry' for Jailed Airgun Teacher

By Joanne Clements, PA

The Prime Minister tonight said he felt “very sorry” for a teacher who was jailed for grabbing an airgun to confront “yobs” outside her home.

Tony Blair said he had read about the case of Linda Walker, who is serving a six-month jail sentence in Styal Prison, Cheshire, and felt sorry for her.

Walker, 48, fired an air-pistol at the pavement during a stand-off with a gang of youths outside her home in Urmston, Manchester, last August.

At her trial she said her family and home had been plagued by anti-social behaviour from the “yobs”, but she was jailed last month after being found guilty of affray and possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear and violence.

She told police she had received nuisance phone calls abusing her family, her garden shed had been broken into, and a car and her garden had been vandalised.

Tonight, speaking on Granada Reports, the Prime Minister said he hoped Home Office minister Hazel Blears would intervene in Walker’s teaching disciplinary hearing and make sure the 48-year-old could attend.

He said: “I actually feel very sorry for Linda Walker and I hope Hazel Blears, the Home Office minister, has intervened in her disciplinary hearing to ensure it is at a time when she can be there because she has been a teacher for many years.”

He added: “I can’t start interfering in court decisions but I read about the case in the papers at the time and I do feel very sorry for her.”


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: bang; banglist; nobanglist
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1 posted on 04/23/2005 9:51:08 AM PDT by kiriath_jearim
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“I can’t start interfering in court decisions but I read about the case in the papers at the time and I do feel very sorry for her.”

What a WUZZ.

Men are supposed to.........

Well I guess Tony isn't a man.

2 posted on 04/23/2005 9:54:57 AM PDT by Jakarta ex-pat
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To: Jakarta ex-pat

Meanwhile, the gang of youths demolished this poor woman's life and property.

European justice, coming to towns in the US soon!


3 posted on 04/23/2005 9:56:41 AM PDT by wrathof59 ("to the Everlasting Glory of the Infantry".........Robert A Heinlein)
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To: kiriath_jearim
..."possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear and violence"....

Seems like the only ones she intended to "cause fear and violence" to, were the ones who were causing fear and violence to her and her family.

4 posted on 04/23/2005 9:56:59 AM PDT by digger48
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To: kiriath_jearim

Justice Kennedy and othe "activist" judges will be citing the magnificent international law behind this case to get rid of our Second Amendment any day now.


5 posted on 04/23/2005 9:58:35 AM PDT by FormerACLUmember (Honoring Saint Jude's assistance every day.)
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To: MadIvan

Can the Prime Minister of England grant pardons?


6 posted on 04/23/2005 9:58:58 AM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: kiriath_jearim

"...possessing a firearm..."

Not to split a hair, but airguns by definition are not firearms. Calling one a firearm is a crock of politically-correct redefinition of an accepted term.


7 posted on 04/23/2005 10:05:05 AM PDT by Felis_irritable
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To: DuncanWaring

How scary! They did more harm to her than she did to them. How warped!!!


8 posted on 04/23/2005 10:05:17 AM PDT by Aleighanne
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To: kiriath_jearim
The Prime Minister tonight said he felt “very sorry” for a teacher who was jailed for grabbing an airgun to confront “yobs” outside her home.

He didn't perchance say "This is a wankerish law that should be repealed forthwith, and I will be doing everything in my power to make it happen!", did he?

If not, his "very sorry" rings hollow.

9 posted on 04/23/2005 10:23:27 AM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: Jakarta ex-pat
"Well I guess Tony isn't a man."

Likely due to his support for U.S. foreign policy, many overlook that Blair is quite representative of the left's prototypical metrosexual "new man".

Accordingly, he's merely mouthing one of the socialists' main tenets:
"Judges are Gods. Mere mortals - even if they happen to be the peoples' duly elected representatives - dare not question them!"
10 posted on 04/23/2005 10:25:20 AM PDT by GMMAC (... Liberal troll showed up - now my tagline's gone!)
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To: kiriath_jearim
...she was jailed last month after being found guilty of affray and possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear and violence.

Bloody bleedin' yobs and the bleedin' bloody socialists who protect them. I'm bloody bleedin' gobsmacked.

FMCDH(BITS)

11 posted on 04/23/2005 10:58:58 AM PDT by nothingnew (I fear for my Republic due to marxist influence in our government. Open eyes/see)
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To: kiriath_jearim

What is a "yob"?


12 posted on 04/23/2005 11:17:27 AM PDT by Cobra64
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To: Cobra64
"Yob" - boy spelled backwards - is British slang for the young hoodlums and thugs who thrive there now. They are big soccer fans and terrorize other countries when they travel abroad. The novel "A Clockwork Orange" predicted their emergence and was prescient.
13 posted on 04/23/2005 11:41:29 AM PDT by Malesherbes
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To: GMMAC
Maybe Tony should assume the power to issue pardons and grant other forms of executive clemency to convicted criminals, like the typical American governor. And perhaps he's beginning to have an epiphany about why we Americans hold our Second Amendment so dearly. But he has to face an election without alienating further the hard-core euro-socialist majorities (or are they really a majority after all?).
14 posted on 04/23/2005 11:47:08 AM PDT by dufekin (United States of America: a judicial tyranny, not a federal republic)
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To: Jakarta ex-pat

Hell, if your going to get charged anyway you might as well shoot them right in their butts.


15 posted on 04/23/2005 11:54:01 AM PDT by Americanexpat (A strong democracy through citizen oversight.)
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To: digger48

Seems like the only ones she intended to "cause fear and violence" to, were the ones who were causing fear and violence to her and her family.


Yes but in England they only want to stop the firearm possession not the scum causing fear and violence.


16 posted on 04/23/2005 11:56:29 AM PDT by freedomfiter2
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To: wrathof59

Only over a lot of dead bodies.


17 posted on 04/23/2005 12:20:12 PM PDT by Travis McGee (----- www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com -----)
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To: Malesherbes
The novel "A Clockwork Orange" predicted their emergence and was prescient.

Amen X 1,000!

18 posted on 04/23/2005 12:21:07 PM PDT by Travis McGee (----- www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com -----)
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To: Felis_irritable
Not to split a hair, but airguns by definition are not firearms. Calling one a firearm is a crock of politically-correct redefinition of an accepted term.

You are correct, but in Great Britain, the law has been changed to include airguns, and I believe, even replica guns that do not fire, as "firearms". There is a move on to make toy guns illegal as well.

This stems from the insane anti-gun ideology that has been fostered in Great Britain for 50 years by the powers that be, in order to insure that the people are disarmed. Their old, insane "reason" was that it was a crime fighting measure. By crime has gotten worse with their policies, and all they can do is to call for more and more absurd "gun control" laws.

Ban handguns... and crime increases ... call for tight regulations of air guns. Crime increases .... call for a ban on toy guns... Crime increases... call for a ban on gun magazines (periodicals, not ammunition containers).

Great Britain's immoral gun control policy has been shown to be idiotic, but that doesn't stop the left... Ignore reality, they shout, Follow us!

19 posted on 04/23/2005 1:21:26 PM PDT by marktwain
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To: kiriath_jearim
The sheeple in Britain should demand that since guns are banned Tony Blair and the other ruling elites no longer need armed body guards.

If a woman can't use and doesn't need a BB gun to defend herself from teen toughs, then armed body guards for the ruling elite are out of the question.

If their charges are threatened they can always retreat behind a locked door and cower just like the rest of the English people.

20 posted on 04/23/2005 3:11:08 PM PDT by metalurgist (Death to the democrats!)
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