Police and the courts were preparing themselves for a crime spree, after cabinet secretary Peter Hain used ignorance as a defence for breaking the political funding laws in the UK. He has maintained that he should avoid punishment because he did not know the details of the law.
"If criminals are able to avoid punishment because they say that they did not know that certain behaviour was illegal, where will it end?" A Chief Constable said. He continued: "Pleas such as 'I didn't know what the speed limit was' or 'I didn't know that killing my neighbour was wrong' or 'I thought invading Iraq without a UN resolution made the war legal' will all be admissible in court."
Gordon Brown is currently giving Hain his full support. A Downing Street spokesperson said: "If MPs could not be ministers just because they are ignorant, we'd never form a government."