Ketut Royson
He *may* be right -- but in this case what does "right" actually mean. If the press is controlled, if there is no scope for public debate or dissent, then the loudest voice tnds to win.
If for example, someone in power says "Sydney is short of potable water" and "A desalination plant is the only viable response, according to experts" and no other data to challenge that gets into the public domain, because the opposition has little access to the press, and no prospect of making an impact anywhere it counts then when you poll people, "Do you think Sydney should address its water needs with a deslination plant?" most people will say yes.
Someone can then say "most people support it" and be right. That doesn't mean that given a proper debate that examinbed all the risks, costs and benefits of all the plausible solutions, they wouldn't be much more divided on the issue. I'm not aware that any polling has been done on the issue of the rest penalty at all.
When jury trials were abolished some while back in capital cases, it was largely because the prosecution thought that the mandatory rest penalty would lead some juries to acquit. That surely says something.
Fran
