What is flying in the face?
THE expression "Flies in the face of common sense" is taken from an interesting judgment of the House of Lords reported in R v. Secretary of State for the Home Department, (1995) 2 All ER 244. Lord Browne Wilkinson was faced with an argument that Section 171 of the Criminal Justice Act of 1988 vests in the Secretary of State a discretion for bringing into force certain sections of the said Act. It was argued that the Secretary of State had an absolute and unfettered discretion to bring in or not to bring in the said Sections. This argument was rejected stating that it was not only constitutionally dangerous but also flies in the face of common sense (at page 253).
This information was given by the Supreme Court in the above judgement.
An apt usage would be - most of the departmental SCNs fly in the face of common sense.