Readership at Above the Law tends to drop off during the holidays. I’ve thus established my own personal tradition of using that lull to go way off-topic and to write something that has nothing to do with being a lawyer. I just write about an issue that interests me.
That’s what you’re reading today.
I’ve been living in London for more than five years now, and I naturally read the local newspapers. It’s funny how my still-fundamentally American eyes sometimes think the British are so quaint.
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For example, there have been several murders committed in London recently by nutcases armed with knives. The locals are up in arms.
They’re right to be up in arms, of course: Any murder is offensive, and death by knife is a grisly way to go, and things like this shouldn’t happen in a civilized society.
But I can’t help thinking with my American eyes: “How quaint. Wouldn’t it be nice if Americans were upset by an epidemic of murders by knife?”
We Americans don’t kill 16 people by knife over the course of 11 days. We take semi-automatic weapons and convert them into automatic weapons and spray bullets into a crowd, killing 58 and wounding 500 in one night.
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I long to live in a country where people fret about knife attacks.
How quaint.
(Actually, I guess I do live in a country where people fret about knife attacks. How pleasant.)
Another important local story involves the cost of higher education in the United Kingdom. Until fairly recently, college was free. But now, universities charge the outrageous sum of £9000 (or about $12,000) per year for higher education.
This is a big political issue. Folks are outraged by the cost, and the Labour Party has pledged to abolish tuition fees if Labour takes power.
Twelve thousand bucks per year.
We’ve got colleges charging 50 grand and up per year, and kids graduating with $150,000 or more in debt. And folks in Britain are complaining about £9000 and thinking it’s an issue.
It is, of course: £9000 is pretty expensive.
On the other hand, I long to live in a country where we worry about paying $12,000 per year for college.
How quaint.
Finally, political scandals.
The Tories were recently accused in a campaign finance scandal over here. The fiends spent about £63,000 more than allowed to send buses of campaigners into contested areas. (When you click through to read that story, remember that “marginal” has different meanings on different sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Americans hardly bother campaigning in “marginal” areas, because those elections don’t matter: They’re likely to be lopsided races or involve few voters and are thus of only “marginal” importance. In Britain, that’s not so: “Marginal” districts are “battleground” or “swing” districts; the balance of power hinges on a small margin.)
Apart from linguistics, the monetary value is also striking: The Brits are fretting about £63,000! (The Brits forbid television advertisements for political campaigns, and campaigns run only for a couple of months, which may explain why things are comparatively cheap over here.)
In the United States, of course, a candidate would spend two millions bucks running a statewide campaign in a medium-sized state. The U.S. presidential candidates spent about a billion each on the most recent election.
I long for the days when we’d have a huge scandal if a party didn’t declare £63,000 (or maybe 85 grand) in a national election.
How quaint.
Don’t get me wrong: Murder by knife is evil; £9000 per year is a lot to spend for college; and it’s obviously wrong for politicians to break the election laws even in small amounts.
But when you view these things with cross-cultural eyes, they look different — and quaint.
Above the Law will be dark on the next two Mondays, so I’ll see you again after the holidays.
In the meantime, I hope yours are happy!
Mark Herrmann spent 17 years as a partner at a leading international law firm and is now responsible for litigation and employment matters at a large international company. He is the author of The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law and Inside Straight: Advice About Lawyering, In-House And Out, That Only The Internet Could Provide (affiliate links). You can reach him by email at [email protected].