An exquisite irony

Readers may already be aware of the Mubarik/Mubarak case, in which the two children of a multimillionaire jeweller have been given legal aid of £30,750 to protect their interests under a family trust, as their mother is attempting to enforce a divorce award against their father, whose wealth is tied up in the trust. I have just read this report about the case in the Guardian yesterday.

That two children who were born with diamond encrusted spoons in their mouths should be granted legal aid is absurd enough (and a kick in the teeth for those thousands of deserving individuals who are refused legal aid every year), but to add insult to the taxpayer's injury the parents have managed to avoid paying any tax at all, despite being resident here for tax purposes and liable to English taxation, a situation which Mr Justice Holman describes as "exquisitely ironical". No doubt the media will have a field day with this one, and quite right too. If this sort of nonsensical anomaly is not eradicated from the legal aid system, then that system deserves all the ridicule it gets.