Damien

It seems am uncharacteristically fair and sensible decision to me. I am surprised that the law has been drafted well enough to allow it happen. The alternative is that there would be scope for an overzealous prosecution to convict someone of perjury, a serious offence that carries a jail term, for telling a irrelevant minor lie in court.

I.E Someone lies about where they going when they witnesses a crime. They might say they were off to work but really they had decided to take the day off. Is that really worth of being illegal? I am not sure.

We have enough laws written with enough leeway to convict people for stupid things. Remember that guy who was convicted of terrorism offences after tweeting a joke? Everyone knew it was stupid but the law meant they just had to stick with it.