Court rejects challenge over Chindamo deportation ruling
The government has lost its appeal in the High Court, in which it sought to overturn Learco Chindamo's appeal not to be deported when his custodial sentence ends for the murder of school headmaster Philip Lawrence. I am glad that the judge saw common sense and applied the law, rather than pander to the knee-jerkism of politicians who's strings are being pulled by the editors of tabloids.
A mixture of law, politics, autobiography and humour. Once described as "The Devilish Advocate" (Guardian), I do have the ability to provoke a response. Sometimes it comes from someone who uses a thought process, and sometimes from jerks usually associated with the knee.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Iain Dale: All trick no treat
Iain Dale: All trick no treat
It is funny that Iain Dale and the rest of the school kids in the Tory Party have come up with this for Mischievous Night.
Hat-Tip for the photo Chris Paul
Ex-prisoner buys his former cell
Ex-prisoner buys his former cell
A former barrister who is also a former prisoner in Australia has decided to buy his own jail cell.
Breaking news: LATEST: Some government control order measures ruled to breach terror suspects human rights.
Breaking news: LATEST: Some government control order measures ruled to breach terror suspects human rights.
More soon...
Lords want control order rethink
The Law Lords have ordered the government to reconsider control orders imposed on eight terrorism suspects.
Law Lords say control orders breach human rights.
Shouts of 'murderers' and 'torturers' greet King Abdullah on Palace tour
Shouts of 'murderers' and 'torturers' greet King Abdullah on Palace tour
One of the most controversial state visits to Britain of recent times began officially yesterday with a royal welcome, set against a backdrop of protest placards.
Not that it matters in the great scheme of things, however, I cannot help but wonder whether Mark Thomas was inspired by Brookes or whether it was the other way around?
"It's really important to show opposition to this disgusting hypocritical state of affairs where governments, rules of law, human affairs and democracy are cast aside to worship a barrel of oil".
One of the most controversial state visits to Britain of recent times began officially yesterday with a royal welcome, set against a backdrop of protest placards.
Not that it matters in the great scheme of things, however, I cannot help but wonder whether Mark Thomas was inspired by Brookes or whether it was the other way around?
"It's really important to show opposition to this disgusting hypocritical state of affairs where governments, rules of law, human affairs and democracy are cast aside to worship a barrel of oil".
Deporting a serial sex offender would breach human rights
Deporting a serial sex offender would breach human rights
Mohammed Kendeh, 20, a serial sex offender from Sierra Leone has been allowed to stay in Britain after a judge ruled that deporting him would breach his human rights. The case echoes the decision in August of Learco Chindamo. It is claimed that it will embarrass Gordon Brown who has pledged to deport foreign nationals who are convicted of crimes in this country. However, I don't think it is a good idea for a politician to get personally involved in judicial cases just to placate the tabloids. Knee-jerkism is not the best way to think out policy. Whilst I have sympathy for this victim, I think her mentality is flawed by this statement: "How is it right that somebody who has offended so seriously against defenceless women is allowed to remain in this country?" she said. "It is a farce". What if the offence had been committed by an Englishman? There would be no calls to deport him. I think it is wrong to seek to deport foreigners as it amounts to an additional punishment reserved for non-British persons. It is the conduct and the person deserving punishment and not nationality.
Mohammed Kendeh, 20, a serial sex offender from Sierra Leone has been allowed to stay in Britain after a judge ruled that deporting him would breach his human rights. The case echoes the decision in August of Learco Chindamo. It is claimed that it will embarrass Gordon Brown who has pledged to deport foreign nationals who are convicted of crimes in this country. However, I don't think it is a good idea for a politician to get personally involved in judicial cases just to placate the tabloids. Knee-jerkism is not the best way to think out policy. Whilst I have sympathy for this victim, I think her mentality is flawed by this statement: "How is it right that somebody who has offended so seriously against defenceless women is allowed to remain in this country?" she said. "It is a farce". What if the offence had been committed by an Englishman? There would be no calls to deport him. I think it is wrong to seek to deport foreigners as it amounts to an additional punishment reserved for non-British persons. It is the conduct and the person deserving punishment and not nationality.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Viscount Linley is the minor Royal in blackmail case
Viscount Linley is the minor Royal in blackmail case
The minor Royal believed to be at the centre of the blackmail, cocaine, and sex video tape scandal is David Albert Charles Armstrong-Jones, Viscount Linley, nephew to the Queen and the son of the late Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon.
Vicount Linley is the 12th in coke lines to the throne.
British reporting restrictions have become something of a joke. In an attempt to protect the identity of Viscount Linley, the initial court hearing was held in secret and the public and media were denied access to seeing justice being done. The court ordered that the British media could not name Viscount Linley as the blackmail victim. However, he has been named in the Mainstream Media in the US, Australia, Italy, and Germany, and several blogs have also named him. Given the internet it is almost impossible to maintain secrecy in a case like this, so why do they even bother going through the motions?
Royal blackmail case makes the law look like an ass
Websites name UK blackmail royal
UPDATE: Viscount Linley will not appear as a witness in court.
UPDATED UPDATE:
"Two men tried to blackmail a member of the Royal Family with a sound recording containing claims he had performed a gay sex act, a court has heard".
UPDATED UPDATED UPDATED:
Jury out in royal blackmail trial
Pair jailed for royal blackmail
The minor Royal believed to be at the centre of the blackmail, cocaine, and sex video tape scandal is David Albert Charles Armstrong-Jones, Viscount Linley, nephew to the Queen and the son of the late Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon.
Vicount Linley is the 12th in coke lines to the throne.
British reporting restrictions have become something of a joke. In an attempt to protect the identity of Viscount Linley, the initial court hearing was held in secret and the public and media were denied access to seeing justice being done. The court ordered that the British media could not name Viscount Linley as the blackmail victim. However, he has been named in the Mainstream Media in the US, Australia, Italy, and Germany, and several blogs have also named him. Given the internet it is almost impossible to maintain secrecy in a case like this, so why do they even bother going through the motions?
Royal blackmail case makes the law look like an ass
Websites name UK blackmail royal
UPDATE: Viscount Linley will not appear as a witness in court.
UPDATED UPDATE:
"Two men tried to blackmail a member of the Royal Family with a sound recording containing claims he had performed a gay sex act, a court has heard".
UPDATED UPDATED UPDATED:
Jury out in royal blackmail trial
Pair jailed for royal blackmail
McCanns: Poll do you believe they are guilty?
McCanns: Poll do you believe they are guilty?
Feel free to take part in the poll in the side bar. You have 4 options; guilty; not guilty; don't know; and, don't care.
Feel free to take part in the poll in the side bar. You have 4 options; guilty; not guilty; don't know; and, don't care.
Identity crisis
Identity crisis
I think I am flattered to be likened to JFK. Driver avoid Texas and any grassy knolls...
Hat-Tip to Bob Piper.
I think I am flattered to be likened to JFK. Driver avoid Texas and any grassy knolls...
Hat-Tip to Bob Piper.
Graffiti prison terms overturned
Graffiti prison terms overturned
Two graffiti artists jailed for spray painting trains and railway bridges have had their sentences overturned.
I agree in principle that community sentences as opposed to custodial sentences are more appropriate in this case. I could not help but wonder when I read this "Mr Dolan said he was continuing with plans for a career in art and design.", how he would feel if someone came along and sprayed graffiti upon his artwork?
McCanns used fund to pay mortgage
McCanns used fund to pay mortgage
The fighting fund set up to help find Madeleine McCann was used by her parents to make two mortgage payments, their spokesman has said.
Anyone doubting that the McCanns are crooks only has to look at the wording of their findmadeleinefund "The fund has always had the ability to assist the family financially if necessary." to realise that it was a scam from the outset. Had they been truthful and stated that they were seeking donations to prolong their holiday and pay for their mortgage and give financial assistance to the rest of the Clan McCann, would the public have been so generous?
Monday, October 29, 2007
Dear Blogspot.com
Dear Blogspot.com
Last week the image on my Header disappeared. Since that time I have been unable to customise my Header because this image of your's has got stuck in a timewarp and is blocking any attempt to restore my Header image.
I trust you will resolve this problem for me?
The case of the blogger who went blind deaf and dumb
The case of the blogger who went blind deaf and dumb
Last Friday I reported on this story in the Guardian. And whilst noting the conduct of Lord Hoyle, I also raised the issue of the Tory MP Gerald Howarth inappropriately giving a security pass to the House of Commons to an individual who is not a research assistant and therefore is not entitled to one.
Iain Dale also reported this story but chose not to mention the conduct of the Tory MP Gerald Howarth. However, this omission did not go unnoticed in the comments:
Anonymous said...
Perhaps you'd like to tell us who Wood gets his pass from? Is it a member of the Conservative front bench perhaps? You know, I think it is.
October 25, 2007 11:35 PM
Iain Dale said...
Indeed so. It is Gerald Howarth. I shall be asking him about this when I see him at an event tomorrow evening.
October 25, 2007 11:52 PM
Iain Dale blogs about the event here but fails to mention whether he indeed did speak to the Tory MP George Howarth about his wrongdoing and what his reply was.
As you can see from my comment on Iain Dale's blog I asked the question again:
October 28, 2007 10:26 AM
jailhouselawyer said...
And what was Gerald Howarth's response to your question that you said you was going to ask him about giving a research pass to someone who is not doing any research for him?
October 28, 2007 10:34 AM
To date the Tory blogger remains silent. Does this indicate that there is something to hide? Perhaps Iain Dale and/or the Tory MP Gerald Howarth can shed some light upon this issue?
Last Friday I reported on this story in the Guardian. And whilst noting the conduct of Lord Hoyle, I also raised the issue of the Tory MP Gerald Howarth inappropriately giving a security pass to the House of Commons to an individual who is not a research assistant and therefore is not entitled to one.
Iain Dale also reported this story but chose not to mention the conduct of the Tory MP Gerald Howarth. However, this omission did not go unnoticed in the comments:
Anonymous said...
Perhaps you'd like to tell us who Wood gets his pass from? Is it a member of the Conservative front bench perhaps? You know, I think it is.
October 25, 2007 11:35 PM
Iain Dale said...
Indeed so. It is Gerald Howarth. I shall be asking him about this when I see him at an event tomorrow evening.
October 25, 2007 11:52 PM
Iain Dale blogs about the event here but fails to mention whether he indeed did speak to the Tory MP George Howarth about his wrongdoing and what his reply was.
As you can see from my comment on Iain Dale's blog I asked the question again:
October 28, 2007 10:26 AM
jailhouselawyer said...
And what was Gerald Howarth's response to your question that you said you was going to ask him about giving a research pass to someone who is not doing any research for him?
October 28, 2007 10:34 AM
To date the Tory blogger remains silent. Does this indicate that there is something to hide? Perhaps Iain Dale and/or the Tory MP Gerald Howarth can shed some light upon this issue?
A royal guest to be proud of?
A royal guest to be proud of?
His regime is condemned as one of the most brutal in the world, but today Britain will roll out the red carpet for King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia
"Addicts don't tell the truth to their dealers." That's why this week the torturer will be inside Buckingham Palace, and his victims left outside, alone.
Saudi king chides UK on terrorism.
And what about your country's human rights record your royal highness?
His regime is condemned as one of the most brutal in the world, but today Britain will roll out the red carpet for King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia
"Addicts don't tell the truth to their dealers." That's why this week the torturer will be inside Buckingham Palace, and his victims left outside, alone.
Saudi king chides UK on terrorism.
And what about your country's human rights record your royal highness?
'Lotto rapist' case goes to House of Lords
'Lotto rapist' case goes to House of Lords
I am surprised that the House of Lords are even entertaining hearing the case of the woman who was raped and received £5,000 from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board, as she tries to claim damages out of time from the rapist who later won the lottery. According to her lawyers "My client and others like her should be able to gain justice through the civil courts and there is clearly an anomaly in the law as it stands that is preventing them from doing so". My understanding is that it is up to Parliament to legislate to amend the 6 year rule in which claims have to be made. I cannot see the HofL ruling in her favour because the politicians had the chance to amend the law and chose not to do so. Whether she should be entitled to more is one issue, whether the law should be changed to allow someone another bite of the cherry is another issue. I cannot see the link between the rapist's criminal conduct and subsequent punishment, and his later good fortune in winning the lottery. I don't think it can be claimed that he is benefiting from his crime. The two acts are totally separate and distanced by over 6 years in time. As no law prevented him from buying a lottery ticket, he has the same rights as anyone else to claim and spend his winnings if his numbers come up.
I am surprised that the House of Lords are even entertaining hearing the case of the woman who was raped and received £5,000 from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board, as she tries to claim damages out of time from the rapist who later won the lottery. According to her lawyers "My client and others like her should be able to gain justice through the civil courts and there is clearly an anomaly in the law as it stands that is preventing them from doing so". My understanding is that it is up to Parliament to legislate to amend the 6 year rule in which claims have to be made. I cannot see the HofL ruling in her favour because the politicians had the chance to amend the law and chose not to do so. Whether she should be entitled to more is one issue, whether the law should be changed to allow someone another bite of the cherry is another issue. I cannot see the link between the rapist's criminal conduct and subsequent punishment, and his later good fortune in winning the lottery. I don't think it can be claimed that he is benefiting from his crime. The two acts are totally separate and distanced by over 6 years in time. As no law prevented him from buying a lottery ticket, he has the same rights as anyone else to claim and spend his winnings if his numbers come up.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Tourist wrongly detained in jail
Tourist wrongly detained in jail
A man accused of being an illegal immigrant while on holiday in Northern Ireland has been paid £7,500 after he was wrongly put in prison.
The Immigration Service wrongly detained the man in Maghaberry jail.
Frank Kakopa who is originally from Zimbabwe, was on a short break with his wife and young children in 2005, when he was stopped at Belfast City Airport.
Despite showing documentation that he lived and worked in England, he was taken to prison.
He was strip searched and held for two days.
Mr Kakopa said the experience still haunted him.
An unlikely path to hope behind bars
An unlikely path to hope behind bars
Mary Ridell argues that "A pioneering scheme at Huntercombe juvenile prison in Oxfordshire offers tangible proof of the worth of re-educating young offenders".
Mary Ridell argues that "A pioneering scheme at Huntercombe juvenile prison in Oxfordshire offers tangible proof of the worth of re-educating young offenders".
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Guantanamo military lawyer breaks ranks to condemn 'unconscionable' detention
Guantanamo military lawyer breaks ranks to condemn 'unconscionable' detention
By Leonard Doyle in Washington
Published: 27 October 2007
An American military lawyer and veteran of dozens of secret Guantanamo tribunals has made a devastating attack on the legal process for determining whether Guantanamo prisoners are "enemy combatants".
The whistleblower, an army major inside the military court system which the United States has established at Guantanamo Bay, has described the detention of one prisoner, a hospital administrator from Sudan, as "unconscionable".
His critique will be the centrepiece of a hearing on 5 December before the US Supreme Court when another attempt is made to shut the prison down. So nervous is the Bush administration of the latest attack – and another Supreme Court ruling against it – that it is preparing a whole new system of military courts to deal with those still imprisoned.
The whistleblower's testimony is the most serious attack to date on the military panels, which were meant to give a fig- leaf of legitimacy to the interrogation and detention policies at Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay. The major has taken part in 49 status review panels.
"It's a kangaroo court system and completely corrupt," said Michael Ratner, the president of the Centre for Constitutional Rights, which is co-ordinating investigations and appeals lawsuits against the government by some 1,000 lawyers. "Stalin had show trials, but at Guantanamo they are not even show trials because it all takes place in secret."
Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held for 558 detainees at the Guantanamo in 2004 and 2005. All but 38 detainees were determined to be "enemy combatants" who could be held indefinitely without charges. Detainees were not represented by a lawyer and had no access to evidence. The only witnesses they could call were other so-called "enemy combatants".
The army major has said that in the rare circumstances in which it was decided that the detainees were no longer enemy combatants, senior commanders ordered another panel to reverse the decision. The major also described "acrimony" during a "heated conference" call from Admiral McGarragh, who reports to the Secretary of the US Navy, when a the panel refused to describe several Uighur detainees as enemy combatants. Senior military commanders wanted to know why some panels considering the same evidence would come to different findings on the Uighurs, members of a Muslim minority in China.
When the whistleblower suggested over the phone that inconsistent results were "good for the system ... and would show that the system was working correctly", Admiral McGarragh, he said, had no response. The latest criticism emerged when lawyers investigating the case of a Sudanese hospital administrator, Adel Hamad, who has been held for five years, came across a "stunning" sworn statement from a member of the military panel. The officer they interviewed was so frightened of retaliation from the military that they would not allow their name to be used in the statement, nor to reveal whether the person was a man or woman.
Two other military lawyers have also gone public. In June, Army Lt-Col Stephen Abraham, a 26-year veteran in US military intelligence, became the first insider to publicly fault the proceedings. In May last year, Lt-Com Matthew Diaz was sentenced to six months in prison and dismissed from the military after he sent the names of all 551 men at the prison to a human rights group.
William Teesdale, a British-born lawyer investigating Mr Hadad's case, said he was certain of his client's innocence, having tracked down doctors who worked with him at an Afghan hospital. "Mr Hamad is an innocent man, and he is not the only one in Guantanamo."
By Leonard Doyle in Washington
Published: 27 October 2007
An American military lawyer and veteran of dozens of secret Guantanamo tribunals has made a devastating attack on the legal process for determining whether Guantanamo prisoners are "enemy combatants".
The whistleblower, an army major inside the military court system which the United States has established at Guantanamo Bay, has described the detention of one prisoner, a hospital administrator from Sudan, as "unconscionable".
His critique will be the centrepiece of a hearing on 5 December before the US Supreme Court when another attempt is made to shut the prison down. So nervous is the Bush administration of the latest attack – and another Supreme Court ruling against it – that it is preparing a whole new system of military courts to deal with those still imprisoned.
The whistleblower's testimony is the most serious attack to date on the military panels, which were meant to give a fig- leaf of legitimacy to the interrogation and detention policies at Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay. The major has taken part in 49 status review panels.
"It's a kangaroo court system and completely corrupt," said Michael Ratner, the president of the Centre for Constitutional Rights, which is co-ordinating investigations and appeals lawsuits against the government by some 1,000 lawyers. "Stalin had show trials, but at Guantanamo they are not even show trials because it all takes place in secret."
Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held for 558 detainees at the Guantanamo in 2004 and 2005. All but 38 detainees were determined to be "enemy combatants" who could be held indefinitely without charges. Detainees were not represented by a lawyer and had no access to evidence. The only witnesses they could call were other so-called "enemy combatants".
The army major has said that in the rare circumstances in which it was decided that the detainees were no longer enemy combatants, senior commanders ordered another panel to reverse the decision. The major also described "acrimony" during a "heated conference" call from Admiral McGarragh, who reports to the Secretary of the US Navy, when a the panel refused to describe several Uighur detainees as enemy combatants. Senior military commanders wanted to know why some panels considering the same evidence would come to different findings on the Uighurs, members of a Muslim minority in China.
When the whistleblower suggested over the phone that inconsistent results were "good for the system ... and would show that the system was working correctly", Admiral McGarragh, he said, had no response. The latest criticism emerged when lawyers investigating the case of a Sudanese hospital administrator, Adel Hamad, who has been held for five years, came across a "stunning" sworn statement from a member of the military panel. The officer they interviewed was so frightened of retaliation from the military that they would not allow their name to be used in the statement, nor to reveal whether the person was a man or woman.
Two other military lawyers have also gone public. In June, Army Lt-Col Stephen Abraham, a 26-year veteran in US military intelligence, became the first insider to publicly fault the proceedings. In May last year, Lt-Com Matthew Diaz was sentenced to six months in prison and dismissed from the military after he sent the names of all 551 men at the prison to a human rights group.
William Teesdale, a British-born lawyer investigating Mr Hadad's case, said he was certain of his client's innocence, having tracked down doctors who worked with him at an Afghan hospital. "Mr Hamad is an innocent man, and he is not the only one in Guantanamo."
Drugs row killer jailed after third retrial
Drugs row killer jailed after third retrial
An underworld killer was yesterday jailed for life after his third retrial.
Third time lucky...
An underworld killer was yesterday jailed for life after his third retrial.
Third time lucky...
Drunk jailed for urinating on dying woman
Drunk jailed for urinating on dying woman
I think that this bloke was taking the piss. Not only was his behaviour beyond the pale, those who watched and gave the dying woman no assistance but were more interested in seeing the image on YouTube should have also been prosecuted.
McCanns: 70% of public believe they are guilty
McCanns: 70% of public believe they are guilty
A poll conducted by Spanish television following Kate and Gerry McCann's interview on Wednesday has indicated that as much as 70 per cent of the audience do not believe Madeleine's parents' story.
Come on Clarence Mitchell, you really are going to have to work harder to earn your money...30% of people believing the McCanns version of events is a PR disaster.
Man who had sex with bike in court
Man who had sex with bike in court
No it is not April Fools Day. I kid you not. I have heard of prisoners being referred to as the bike of A Wing for example, or a girl in the next street being referred to as the bike of the street.
The mind boggles...
Friday, October 26, 2007
Jean Charles de Menezes: Of course the police are at fault
Jean Charles de Menezes: Of course the police are at fault
It is being claimed by Ronald Thwaites QC, for the Metropolitan Police, that the deliberate shoot to kill policy used on the innocent Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes "was a terrible accident".
The police did not just "accidently" shoot Jean Charles de Menezes once, they "accidently" shot him 5 times for good measure.
It is claimed that he looked like a terrorist suspect, acted like a terrorist suspect, and that was why he was shot.
The police fucked up but it is not the fault of the police? It comes to something when the police claim that he was the wrong person in the wrong place at the right time so they let him have it.
It is being claimed by Ronald Thwaites QC, for the Metropolitan Police, that the deliberate shoot to kill policy used on the innocent Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes "was a terrible accident".
The police did not just "accidently" shoot Jean Charles de Menezes once, they "accidently" shot him 5 times for good measure.
It is claimed that he looked like a terrorist suspect, acted like a terrorist suspect, and that was why he was shot.
The police fucked up but it is not the fault of the police? It comes to something when the police claim that he was the wrong person in the wrong place at the right time so they let him have it.
Spin is not the answer
At long last the Mainstream Media is waking up to the message that in the case of the McCanns Spin is not the answer.
In my view, the media should have been questioning the McCanns desire to advance their version of events.
Yesterday, the McCanns stated that they believed Madeleine had been abducted following their friends alleged sighting of someone carrying what she thought might be a child. However, Kate McCann announced that Madeleine had been abducted much earlier than their friends belated announcement.
Bottom line, anyone who is searching for the truth or speaking the truth does not require spin. Therefore, the McCanns have lied from the outset and this is why they felt the need to put a spin on events.
In my view, the media should have been questioning the McCanns desire to advance their version of events.
Yesterday, the McCanns stated that they believed Madeleine had been abducted following their friends alleged sighting of someone carrying what she thought might be a child. However, Kate McCann announced that Madeleine had been abducted much earlier than their friends belated announcement.
Bottom line, anyone who is searching for the truth or speaking the truth does not require spin. Therefore, the McCanns have lied from the outset and this is why they felt the need to put a spin on events.
Bloggers mobilise against domestic violence
Bloggers mobilise against domestic violence
"In this report we will see how Bangladeshi bloggers have started making waves in the fight against domestic violence to bring justice to its victims, proving the power of cyberactivism once again".
This month it is Domestic Violence Awareness month in the US.
And this campaign is organised by Stop Violence Against Women.
"In this report we will see how Bangladeshi bloggers have started making waves in the fight against domestic violence to bring justice to its victims, proving the power of cyberactivism once again".
This month it is Domestic Violence Awareness month in the US.
And this campaign is organised by Stop Violence Against Women.
Corruption in High Places
Corruption in High Places
The Guardian reports that "A Labour peer has admitted taking money to introduce an arms company lobbyist to the government minister in charge of weapons purchases".
Apparently, it is not illegal for Michael Wood to pay an undisclosed sum of money to Lord Hoyle, previously Doug Hoyle, an ex-government whip and former Labour MP for Warrington, for an introduction to Lord Drayson, the defence minister in charge of billions of pounds of military procurement.
Although Michael Wood appears to be a freelance consultant who has been known to work for BAE Systems, it is clear that he is not a research assistant, and yet he holds a parliamentary pass as a "research assistant" to the corrupt Aldershot Conservative MP Gerald Howarth.
Not only should "cash for access" be unlawful, but also the practice of giving research passes to people who clearly are not research assistants. I wonder how much Gerald Howarth was paid to provide a pass for an improper purpose?
The Guardian reports that "A Labour peer has admitted taking money to introduce an arms company lobbyist to the government minister in charge of weapons purchases".
Apparently, it is not illegal for Michael Wood to pay an undisclosed sum of money to Lord Hoyle, previously Doug Hoyle, an ex-government whip and former Labour MP for Warrington, for an introduction to Lord Drayson, the defence minister in charge of billions of pounds of military procurement.
Although Michael Wood appears to be a freelance consultant who has been known to work for BAE Systems, it is clear that he is not a research assistant, and yet he holds a parliamentary pass as a "research assistant" to the corrupt Aldershot Conservative MP Gerald Howarth.
Not only should "cash for access" be unlawful, but also the practice of giving research passes to people who clearly are not research assistants. I wonder how much Gerald Howarth was paid to provide a pass for an improper purpose?
Inmate executed after judge refuses to stay open for appeal
Inmate executed after judge refuses to stay open for appeal
"A Texas judge today faced a widespread rebuke from her fellow lawyers for refusing to keep her courthouse open after 5pm to hear a last-minute death row appeal. The prisoner was executed hours later".
Hat-Tip to eric the fish.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Life on Death Row
Life on Death Row
'I spend my days preparing for life, not for death'
The former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal has spent 25 years on death row in the United States - despite strong evidence that he is innocent. In his first British interview, he talks to Laura Smith about life in solitary, how he has remained politically active, and why the Panthers are still relevant today
Thursday October 25, 2007
The Guardian
SCI Greene County Prison on the outskirts of Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, sits low in the rural landscape so that it's easy from the restaurants and petrol stations on the main road to miss the barbed wire coiled in endless circles. Inside, the plush leather chairs that squat on shiny floors make it feel more like a private hospital than a maximum security institution. But the black men in prison jumpsuits cleaning the floor, eyes downcast, dispel any such illusions. Signs spell out the rules: no hoods, no unauthorised persons, only $20 in cash allowed.
Death row - or at least the visiting area - is a curiously ordinary place. A central waiting room where a guard watches the goings-on. Institutional doors opening on to small boxes, each furnished with a table and chair. But then, inside the visiting room, there is the shock of a grown man in an orange jumpsuit, his hands cuffed, the space small enough for him to reach out and touch both walls. And between us a layer of thick, reinforced glass.
Mumia Abu-Jamal has lived at SCI Greene since January 1995. Convicted and sentenced to death in 1982 for the murder of a police officer in his home town, Philadelphia, he spends his days in solitary confinement, in a room he has described as smaller than most people's bathroom. When I arrive, he puts his fist to the glass in greeting. He is a tall, broad man with dreadlocked hair, still dark, and a beard slightly greying at the edges. He has lively eyes.
It is hard to know how to begin a conversation with Abu-Jamal, revered for his activism around the world as much as he is reviled as a cop killer by some in his home country. He is careful about who he agrees to see and rarely talks to the mainstream media - this is the first time he has granted an interview to a British newspaper. We start with the basics - the everyday restrictions of prison life. Visits: one a week - though it is difficult for his family to make the 660-mile, 11-hour round-trip from Philadelphia. Money: a stipend of less than $20 (£10) per month. Phone calls: three a week lasting 15 minutes each - but a quarter of an hour to Philadelphia costs $5.69 (£2.77).
This being Abu-Jamal, a campaigning journalist who has written five books about injustice while in prison, it is not long before we are on to the bigger questions: why SCI Greene, which takes most of its 1,700 inmates from Philadelphia, was built "the farthest you can be from Philly and still be in the state of Pennsylvania". "I believe it is intentional," he says. "I could count the times on my hand when I have seen this whole visiting area full." And why Global Tel Net, the firm that provides the prison phone calls, is allowed to charge so much of people who have so little. His conclusion is characteristically pithy: "The poorest pay the most."
Abu-Jamal has eight children, the eldest of whom is 38, and several grandchildren. How does he keep in touch? "Some grandchildren I have not seen. That's difficult. You try to keep contact through the phone, you write. I send cards that I draw and paint. To let them know the old man still loves them." Abu-Jamal's father William died when he was nine; his mother Edith died in February 1990 - eight years after he was imprisoned. He goes very quiet telling me this, and there doesn't seem much point asking how it felt not to be able to sit with her at the end.
Abu-Jamal has been locked up since he was 27. He is now 53. The story of how he ended up here has been told often. As a teenager he had been active in the Black Panther party but by 1981, with most of the party's leaders either dead or in jail, he had become a well-respected radio reporter and president of the Philadelphia chapter of the Association of Black Journalists. Radio journalism was not well paid, however, and Abu-Jamal supplemented his income by driving a taxi at night.
In the early hours of December 9 1981, he was out in his cab when he saw his brother, Billy Cook, being stopped by a police officer, Daniel Faulkner. A struggle ensued, during which Cook says Faulkner assaulted him. Abu-Jamal got out of his cab. Minutes later, Faulkner had been shot dead and Abu-Jamal was slumped nearby with a bullet wound to the chest, his own gun not far away.
At his trial in 1982 it appeared an open and shut case. A former Black Panther with a history of antipathy towards the police (although no criminal record). A white police officer dead. A succession of eye-witnesses who testified that Abu-Jamal was the killer. And the icing on the cake: a confession made by Abu-Jamal himself at the hospital where he was taken for treatment.
But some inconvenient facts were obscured: Abu-Jamal's gun was never tested to see whether it had been fired; his hands were never swabbed to establish whether he had fired it; and his gun's bullets were never solidly linked to those that killed Faulkner. The crime scene was never secured.
Of the three witnesses, one has since admitted to lying under police pressure, another has disappeared amid evidence that she too was under duress, and the third initially told police that he had seen the killer run away, but changed his story. Evidence from others who said they saw a third man running away was played down.
Evidence of Abu-Jamal's confession was equally shaky. Although two witnesses testified to hearing him shout, "I shot the motherfucker and I hope the motherfucker dies", the doctors who treated him insist that his medical condition made such a thing impossible. Neither of the two police officers who claimed to have heard the confession reported it until more than two months after the shooting - after Abu-Jamal had made allegations of being abused by police during his arrest. On the contrary, one noted in his log at the time that "the negro male made no comment" in hospital.
The trial judge, Albert Sabo, was a former member of the powerful police union, the Fraternal Order of Police, known to favour prosecutors. He overturned permission Abu-Jamal had obtained to represent himself, excluded him from much of his own trial, and presided over jury selection in which the majority of black candidates were removed. A court stenographer overheard Sabo telling a colleague: "I'm going to help them fry the nigger."
There were other irregularities, so many that Amnesty International concluded in 2000 that the trial was "in violation of minimum international standards", adding, "the interests of justice would best be served by the granting of a new trial to Mumia Abu-Jamal".
In the 25 years since, Abu-Jamal has appealed against his conviction many times, and many times has had his pleas rejected. He has had two dates set for his execution, only for them to be overturned by legal pressure. He is now awaiting the outcome of his latest appeal; this time by the second highest court in the US. His lead lawyer, Robert R Bryan, describes it as "the first time in 25 years that Mumia has had a chance at a free and fair trial". Abu-Jamal is more circumspect. "I have learned not to do predictions," he says. "It's not helpful, psychologically. I don't sit and fret about things."
Instead, he spends his days writing about prison life and social struggles around the world. He takes reams of notes from books sent in by supporters, so that he can refer to them when they are taken away (he is allowed only seven in his cell). "I confess, I am a nerd," he says, laughing. He uses his weekly phone calls to record radio commentaries that are broadcast around the world.
Then there are the speeches he records - he spoke at the World Congress Against the Death Penalty this year and the Million Man March in 1995 - the cards he paints for his family, and his drawing. He is currently working on his sixth book, Jailhouse Lawyers, about those prisoners who, like himself, help prepare legal cases with other inmates. He uses a beaten-up typewriter; he has never seen a computer. Asked about the work of which he is proudest, he cites his 2004 book, We Want Freedom, a history of the Black Panther party.
Abu-Jamal spends 22 hours a day alone in his cell - except at weekends, when it's 24. For two hours between 7am and 9am every weekday he has the option of going out into the yard - or "cage", as he prefers to call it. It is 60ft square and fenced on all sides, including overhead. Because "air is precious", he rarely refuses, but not everyone takes up the offer. "People have different ways," he says. "I know some guys who play chess for hours and hours, shouting the moves between cells. Some guys argue with other guys. Some guys used to enjoy smut books, but they've stopped those now. A lot of guys don't come out. I think it's depression. You get tired of seeing the same old faces. The role of television is the illusion of company, noise. I call it the fifth wall and the second window: the window of illusion."
Many of the younger prisoners call him "papa" or "old head" and it is clear that he is touched. "When you are out in the yard, it's dudes joshing," he says. "Guys being guys, playing ball. You have this machismo." One of the things that seems to keep him going are these relationships with other guys in "the hole". Many of them have inspired me and taught me ... about how things are on the street now, how young people are talking and walking."
I ask how prison has changed him. "In ways I could not have imagined," he says. "It has made me immensely patient. I was not before. It has given me an introspection that I hadn't had before, and even a kind of compassion I hadn't had before."
In Abu-Jamal's company, it is easy to forget that you are inside prison walls. As he talks, one is pulled into a world of urgent work that needs doing, of debates to be thrashed out, of injustices to be tackled. With characteristic eloquence, he calls Hurricane Katrina "a rude awakening from an illusion", watching television "a profoundly ignorising experience" and observes that much commercial hip-hop contains "no distinction, except in beat and tone, to a Chrysler advert". "If the message is, I am cool because I am rich, and if you get rich, you can be cool like me, that's a pretty fucked-up message." On American politics, he is damning. "You would think that a country that goes to war allegedly to spread democracy would practice it in its own country."
Born Wesley Cook in the Philadelphia projects, he adopted the name Mumia as a 14-year-old (later adding Abu-Jamal - "father of Jamal" in Arabic - when his first son was born). The following year, aged just 15, he helped found the Philadelphia branch of the Black Panther party after being handed a copy of their newspaper in the street. "I was like, whoah," he says. "It just thrilled me. I was like, this is heaven. This is great. Everything. It was the truth. Uncut, unalloyed. It was everything. It fit me."
He spent long days helping with party activities, which included free children's breakfast programmes and the monitoring of police, whose corruption at that time has since become notorious (at least a third of the officers involved in Abu-Jamal's investigations have since been found to have engaged in corrupt activities, including the fabrication of evidence to frame suspects).
Mostly, as the party's lieutenant of information, he wrote, gathering stories for The Black Panther, the party's newsletter. "It was great fun," he remembers now. "You worked six and seven days a week and 18 hours a day for no pay ... When I tell young people that now they are like, what was that last part? Are you crazy, man? But because we were socialists we didn't want pay. We wanted to serve our people, free our people, stop the homicide and make revolution. We thought about the party morning, noon and night. It was a very busy but fulfilling life for thousands of people across the country. We were serving our people and what could be better than that?"
Subject to relentless disruption by the FBI's Counter Intelligence Programme, which targeted radical and progressive organisations, and riven by internal disagreements, the Black Panthers imploded in the early 1970s. For Abu-Jamal it was a personal tragedy. "Despair," he says when asked how it felt. "A profound despair."
He is adamant that the party's message is still relevant today. "Millions of black people are more isolated in economic, social and political terms than they were 30 years ago," he says. "I remember a photograph of an elderly black woman (after Katrina) who had wrapped herself in the American flag and I remember looking at it and being so struck by it. Maybe she wasn't thinking visually, she was probably very cold and hungry, but I couldn't help thinking, what does citizenship mean? Are you a citizen if in the wealthiest country on earth you are left to starve, to sink or swim, to drown at the time of the flood?"
If Abu-Jamal's latest appeal is successful he could be a granted a retrial or have the death penalty overturned. If it is not, his execution could quickly follow. He does not sound afraid. "I spend my days preparing for life, not preparing for death," he says. "They haven't stopped me from doing what I want every day. I believe in life, I believe in freedom, so my mind is not consumed with death. It's with love, life and those things. In many ways, on many days, only my body is here, because I am thinking about what's happening around the world."
As we leave, people emerge from other visiting rooms into the central area. There's a family with teenage children; a young mother whose little daughter has spent much of our interview peeking through the door - to Abu-Jamal's delight; a grandfather being pushed in a wheelchair. A mother says to her children with a forced cheeriness: "That was a nice visit, wasn't it? I'm sure glad we came."
We step outside into a perfect summer day. All I can think of is my last view after saying goodbye to Abu-Jamal: a row of men, all black, standing behind glass. Their hands cuffed, their faces smiling goodbye to their families, their voices shouting greetings to each other. In a couple of minutes, each man will trek back to a cell no bigger than your bathroom, with no company but their own. But for now, just for now, there is the sight of life. And they're drinking it in.
Gingersnaps has an interesting post on this subject.
Italy proposes 'anti-blogger' law
Italy proposes 'anti-blogger' law
"Italian bloggers are protesting at a proposed law that would force them to register with the government in order to write a blog, even a personal one with no commercial purpose".
Italy proposes a Ministry of Blogging with mandatory blog-licensing
"Famous Italian anti-government campaigner and blogger Beppe Grillo describes a proposed new Italian law which would force all bloggers to register, pay tax and be regulated by a government body".
A geriatric assault on Italy's bloggers
"Recently, Italian lawmakers once again took aim at modern life, introducing an incredibly broad law that would effectively require all bloggers, and even users of social networks, to register with the state. Even a harmless blog about a favourite football squad or a teenager grousing about life’s unfairness would be subject to government oversight, and even taxation – even if it’s not a commercial website".
"Italian bloggers are protesting at a proposed law that would force them to register with the government in order to write a blog, even a personal one with no commercial purpose".
Italy proposes a Ministry of Blogging with mandatory blog-licensing
"Famous Italian anti-government campaigner and blogger Beppe Grillo describes a proposed new Italian law which would force all bloggers to register, pay tax and be regulated by a government body".
A geriatric assault on Italy's bloggers
"Recently, Italian lawmakers once again took aim at modern life, introducing an incredibly broad law that would effectively require all bloggers, and even users of social networks, to register with the state. Even a harmless blog about a favourite football squad or a teenager grousing about life’s unfairness would be subject to government oversight, and even taxation – even if it’s not a commercial website".
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Taxi driver on trial for Lesley Molseed murder
Taxi driver on trial for Lesley Molseed murder
DNA has shown that Ronald Castree is the real killer of 11-year-old Lesley Molseed, a crime for which Stefan Kiszko was wrongly convicted and spent 16 years in prison.
Insurance chief Bright jailed for 7 years
Insurance chief Bright jailed for 7 years
Michael Bright, the former chief executive of Independent Insurance, faces a seven year stretch behind bars for his part in the collapse of the company he founded.
Judge Geoffrey Rivlin said the 62-year-old was the "architect and driving force" in covering up the company's perilous state of finances and he "corrupted a lot of people along the way". He also disqualified Bright from being a company director for 12 years.
Former finance director Dennis Lomas, 56, was given a four-year prison sentence and ex-deputy managing director Philip Condon, 58, received a three-year sentence after they too were convicted of conspiring to defraud fellow "directors, employees, actuaries, auditors, re-insurers, shareholders, policyholders and others by dishonestly withholding claims data".
Michael Bright, the former chief executive of Independent Insurance, faces a seven year stretch behind bars for his part in the collapse of the company he founded.
Judge Geoffrey Rivlin said the 62-year-old was the "architect and driving force" in covering up the company's perilous state of finances and he "corrupted a lot of people along the way". He also disqualified Bright from being a company director for 12 years.
Former finance director Dennis Lomas, 56, was given a four-year prison sentence and ex-deputy managing director Philip Condon, 58, received a three-year sentence after they too were convicted of conspiring to defraud fellow "directors, employees, actuaries, auditors, re-insurers, shareholders, policyholders and others by dishonestly withholding claims data".
Jailors claim right to strike under EU treaty
Jailors claim right to strike under EU treaty
Gordon Brown faces his first legal challenge under the new EU Charter of Fundamental Rights days after claiming to have won a watertight opt-out from the document for Britain.
Prison officers are preparing to use the charter to win back their right to strike in what will become a key test of its force in this country.
Gordon Brown faces his first legal challenge under the new EU Charter of Fundamental Rights days after claiming to have won a watertight opt-out from the document for Britain.
Prison officers are preparing to use the charter to win back their right to strike in what will become a key test of its force in this country.
Britain has two jails for foreign inmates only
Britain has two jails for foreign inmates only
Two jails in England and Wales are entirely populated by foreign nationals, it has emerged.
Prison
Foreign inmates make up 15 per cent of the UK's prison population
In two other jails, the largest proportion of inmates is from overseas.
The all-foreign jails are Bullwood Hall, in Hockley, Essex, which holds 154 prisoners, and Canterbury, with 284 foreign nationals serving less than four years.
Foreign criminals make up a majority of the inmates in the Verne in Dorset and Morton Hall, Lincs.
In 16 further jails, foreign prisoners make up at least a quarter of the population.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Thought crime or terrorism?
Thought crime or terrorism?
Whatever else you want to call this, I don't believe that his conduct amounts to terrorism. I believe that he has been convicted of thought crime.
Whatever else you want to call this, I don't believe that his conduct amounts to terrorism. I believe that he has been convicted of thought crime.
Iain Dale sticks his neck out
Iain Dale sticks his neck out
Iain Dale: "Someone said to me recently, "you are to ties, what Theresa May is to shoes". I think they meant it kindly...".
Might I suggest, somewhat less kindly, that you change your tailor? Suit you Sir? How about you try out Albert Pierrepoint's neckwear?
Normally such a trite post from Iain Dale would not get a reaction from me. But, when it is taken in the light of this post from Bob Piper, perhaps Iain Dale's priorities are in the wrong order?
Iain Dale: "Someone said to me recently, "you are to ties, what Theresa May is to shoes". I think they meant it kindly...".
Might I suggest, somewhat less kindly, that you change your tailor? Suit you Sir? How about you try out Albert Pierrepoint's neckwear?
Normally such a trite post from Iain Dale would not get a reaction from me. But, when it is taken in the light of this post from Bob Piper, perhaps Iain Dale's priorities are in the wrong order?
Irish paper foretells criminal's murder that evening
Irish paper foretells criminal's murder that evening
Here is the news. Later today a man is going to be murdered. Stop Press: As we reportedly predicted earlier, a man has been murdered.
And an apparent punishment killing casts a shadow over the peace process.
Here is the news. Later today a man is going to be murdered. Stop Press: As we reportedly predicted earlier, a man has been murdered.
And an apparent punishment killing casts a shadow over the peace process.
Supervision of freed criminals is a 'catastrophe'
Supervision of freed criminals is a 'catastrophe'
The supervision of dangerous criminals in the community has been branded a "catastrophic failure" after it emerged that more are committing serious offences than ever before.
Mr Heath added: "For even one offender to commit another serious offence while under supervision is unacceptable. For 83 to do so in a single year — a tenth of all the offenders released from prison — is a catastrophic failure".
I think it is being unrealistic to expect 100% success rate for released offenders, and a 10% re-offending rate appears to be reasonable under the circumstances.
I think it has to be faced that prison does not work for everybody. I am firmly of the view that when a prisoner reforms he or she does so in spite of the system and not because of the system. Therefore, I would advocate individual treatment programmes. The one size fits all policy should be eradicated, and concentrate on the individual needs of each and every offender.
The supervision of dangerous criminals in the community has been branded a "catastrophic failure" after it emerged that more are committing serious offences than ever before.
Mr Heath added: "For even one offender to commit another serious offence while under supervision is unacceptable. For 83 to do so in a single year — a tenth of all the offenders released from prison — is a catastrophic failure".
I think it is being unrealistic to expect 100% success rate for released offenders, and a 10% re-offending rate appears to be reasonable under the circumstances.
I think it has to be faced that prison does not work for everybody. I am firmly of the view that when a prisoner reforms he or she does so in spite of the system and not because of the system. Therefore, I would advocate individual treatment programmes. The one size fits all policy should be eradicated, and concentrate on the individual needs of each and every offender.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Kate McCann considers child welfare career
Kate McCann considers child welfare career
Kate McCann intends to quit her job as a GP and take up a new career in child welfare, it has emerged.
Ha, ha, ha...
When I photoshopped this photo, back in August, I was joking. I believed it was the most unlikely scenario.
Kate McCann's tips on child welfare:
1. Go out for hours on end eating and drinking and leave 3 children under 4 years of age unsupervised.
2. Kill your 3 year old and then claim that she was abducted by a passing paedophile.
Kate McCann intends to quit her job as a GP and take up a new career in child welfare, it has emerged.
Ha, ha, ha...
When I photoshopped this photo, back in August, I was joking. I believed it was the most unlikely scenario.
Kate McCann's tips on child welfare:
1. Go out for hours on end eating and drinking and leave 3 children under 4 years of age unsupervised.
2. Kill your 3 year old and then claim that she was abducted by a passing paedophile.
The police - your friendly guides
The police - your friendly guides
"Film-maker Darren Pollard was clearing up flood rubbish from his front garden when he noticed the police harassing a youth opposite his house. He started filming the Police Officers. Police then noticed they were being filmed, entered the film-makers private property, told him to stop filming and told him that he was committing an offence".
Plod: "Put the camera down. It's an offence to film the police".
"We are being policed by people who know not the law, but why would they when they can make it up as they go along!" (Darren Pollard).
Hat-Tip to Charon QC.
"Film-maker Darren Pollard was clearing up flood rubbish from his front garden when he noticed the police harassing a youth opposite his house. He started filming the Police Officers. Police then noticed they were being filmed, entered the film-makers private property, told him to stop filming and told him that he was committing an offence".
Plod: "Put the camera down. It's an offence to film the police".
"We are being policed by people who know not the law, but why would they when they can make it up as they go along!" (Darren Pollard).
Hat-Tip to Charon QC.
Warning to abusive bloggers as judge tells site to reveal names
Warning to abusive bloggers as judge tells site to reveal names
Disgruntled fans of Sheffield Wednesday who vented their dissatisfaction with the football club's bigwigs in anonymous internet postings may face expensive libel claims after the chairman, chief executive and five directors won a high-court ruling last week forcing the owner of a website to reveal their identity.
"There seem to be quite a lot of websites that are using their anonymity to make comments about people and think that there shouldn't be any liability for it. But the internet is no different to any other place of publication, and if somebody is making defamatory comments about people then they should be held responsible for it. What these cases do is just confirm that's the law - the law applies to the internet as much as it does to anything else".
Disgruntled fans of Sheffield Wednesday who vented their dissatisfaction with the football club's bigwigs in anonymous internet postings may face expensive libel claims after the chairman, chief executive and five directors won a high-court ruling last week forcing the owner of a website to reveal their identity.
"There seem to be quite a lot of websites that are using their anonymity to make comments about people and think that there shouldn't be any liability for it. But the internet is no different to any other place of publication, and if somebody is making defamatory comments about people then they should be held responsible for it. What these cases do is just confirm that's the law - the law applies to the internet as much as it does to anything else".
Many prison officers behave no better than prisoners
Many prison officers behave no better than prisoners
A freedom of information request by the Guardian newspaper has disclosed that 1,300 prison officers have either been sacked or disciplined for a range of criminal offences or breaches of security and breaches of Prison Rules.
In total, 1,300 staff were guilty of misconduct, including assaulting prisoners and other staff, racial harassment, falsely claiming sick leave, failing to obey instructions, theft, and being drunk or high on drugs at work.
A freedom of information request by the Guardian newspaper has disclosed that 1,300 prison officers have either been sacked or disciplined for a range of criminal offences or breaches of security and breaches of Prison Rules.
In total, 1,300 staff were guilty of misconduct, including assaulting prisoners and other staff, racial harassment, falsely claiming sick leave, failing to obey instructions, theft, and being drunk or high on drugs at work.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Nick Clegg and the second coming of Jesus Christ
Nick Clegg and the second coming of Jesus Christ
This morning I caught a bit of Andrew Marr on BBC1 talking to Nick Clegg and Chris Who? about their leadership battle to lead the LibDems, and Nick Clegg mentioned that the LibDems were in the wilderness. It reminded me of the 40 days and 40 nights that Jesus spent in the wilderness...
This morning I caught a bit of Andrew Marr on BBC1 talking to Nick Clegg and Chris Who? about their leadership battle to lead the LibDems, and Nick Clegg mentioned that the LibDems were in the wilderness. It reminded me of the 40 days and 40 nights that Jesus spent in the wilderness...
Politics of rugby
Politics of rugby
I am not generally a sporty person, but apparently there was a game of rugby yesterday between England and South Africa, and England lost. Did we try hard enough? LibDem Norfolk Blogger Nich Starling believes we had a try disallowed, whereas Labour blogger Chris Paul believes that the referee's decision was valid.
C of E child abuse was ignored for decades
C of E child abuse was ignored for decades
Child abuse has gone unchecked in the Church of England for decades amid a cover up by bishops, secret papers have revealed.
Child abuse has gone unchecked in the Church of England for decades amid a cover up by bishops, secret papers have revealed.
Review of child inmate batons ban
Review of child inmate batons ban
The government is to consider allowing staff at young offenders institutions in England and Wales to use batons to control children as young as 15.
In 35 years inside I don't recall ever seeing a prison officer using a truncheon upon a prisoner. This is not to say it never happened only that I never actually witnessed it. Certainly the view in the Dispersal System was that their use could lead to a riot situation, that is, an escalation of violence, therefore the policy was not to use them. The reason being that enough staff would be available in any given situation to control it without the use of truncheons. And, there is the Control and Restraint techniques available.
I feel there is a danger if adults were permitted to use batons on children we could see examples like this from the US happening over here.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Tory MP will not face assault charges
Tory MP will not face assault charges
A south London MP arrested by police after he was accused of assaulting his pregnant wife will not face charges.
One law for one and another law for others?
4 year old boy accused of racism
4 year old boy accused of racism
A headteacher has defended her decision to investigate an allegation that a four-year-old boy was guilty of racism during a game of chase.
Anne Phipps acted after Rocky Smith spat at a 10-year-old black boy on the school's playing field. She said she had no choice but to pursue the accusation, despite the child's age.
Has the world gone fucking mad?
I disagree that racism cannot be founded on someone spitting. I have seen some Kurdish spit on the ground when I walk past. Not only is it a sign of contempt but it is also a sign of racism.
A headteacher has defended her decision to investigate an allegation that a four-year-old boy was guilty of racism during a game of chase.
Anne Phipps acted after Rocky Smith spat at a 10-year-old black boy on the school's playing field. She said she had no choice but to pursue the accusation, despite the child's age.
Has the world gone fucking mad?
I disagree that racism cannot be founded on someone spitting. I have seen some Kurdish spit on the ground when I walk past. Not only is it a sign of contempt but it is also a sign of racism.
Friday, October 19, 2007
What a load of rubbish
What a load of rubbish
A former Governor of H.M.Prison Wormwood Scrubs described prison as a penal dustbin. I have been taken out of the penal dustbin for over 2 years now. However, I am still waiting to recycled.
Photo 1 wikipedia
Photo 2 H.M.Prison Service
Lab suspends DNA pioneer Watson
Is intelligence a simple black and white issue?
Lab suspends DNA pioneer Watson
From the BBC...The Nobel Prize-winning DNA pioneer James Watson has been suspended by his research institution in the US.
Dr Watson has drawn severe criticism over remarks he made in a British newspaper at the weekend.
In the interview, he was quoted as saying Africans were less intelligent than Europeans.
And from the Independent...As he arrives in Britain, DNA pioneer breaks his silence on racism row
And from the man himself...James Watson: To question genetic intelligence is not racism
Lab suspends DNA pioneer Watson
From the BBC...The Nobel Prize-winning DNA pioneer James Watson has been suspended by his research institution in the US.
Dr Watson has drawn severe criticism over remarks he made in a British newspaper at the weekend.
In the interview, he was quoted as saying Africans were less intelligent than Europeans.
And from the Independent...As he arrives in Britain, DNA pioneer breaks his silence on racism row
And from the man himself...James Watson: To question genetic intelligence is not racism
Secret CIA jail on British territory to be investigated
Secret CIA jail on British territory to be investigated
Claims of secret CIA jail for terror suspects on British island to be investigated
· Legal charity urges action on Diego Garcia claims
· Prisoners may have been held in ships off coast
In the dock
Bad legal advice about torture could one day lead to prosecutions of the Bush administration in Europe.
Obiturary: Alan Coren kicks the bucket
Obiturary: Alan Coren kicks the bucket
Satirist Alan Coren dies from cancer aged 69
Alan Coren, the satirist, author, long-serving member of the BBC Radio 4 panel show The News Quiz and newspaper columnist, has died at the age of 69 after a fight against cancer.
Suspected paedophile arrested in Thailand
Suspected paedophile arrested in Thailand
Police in Thailand arrested the world’s most wanted paedophile this morning, ending a worldwide manhunt that began when Interpol unscrambled his face in digitally altered online images of child rape.
Suspected paedophile gave advice on web porn
Chris Langham loses child pornography appeal
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Madeleine: A small case shows it is no big problem
Madeleine: A small case shows it is no big problem
What this case shows is how easy the McCanns could have moved and disposed of Madeleine's body.
Law: Is the rule of law a victim of terrorism?
Law: Is the rule of law a victim of terrorism?
With 330 detainees still being held at Guantanamo, the contrasting approach of governments to their citizens raises profound questions.
With 330 detainees still being held at Guantanamo, the contrasting approach of governments to their citizens raises profound questions.
Disliking the McCanns
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Disliking the McCanns
by Anne Enright
London Review of Books
It is very difficult to kill a child by giving it sedatives, even if killing it is what you might want to do. I asked a doctor about this, one who is also a mother. It was a casual, not a professional conversation, but like every other parent in the Western world, she had thought the whole business through. She said that most of the sedatives used on children are over-the-counter antihistamines, like the travel sickness pills that knocked me and my daughter out on an overnight ferry to France recently. It would also be difficult, she told me, to give a lethal dose of prescription sleeping tablets, which these days are usually valium or valium derivatives, ‘unless the child ate the whole packet’. If the child did so, the short-term result would not be death but a coma. Nor could she think of any way such an overdose would lead to blood loss, unless the child vomited blood, which she thought highly unlikely. She said it was possible that doctors sedated their children more than people in other professions but that, even when she thought it might be a good idea (during a transatlantic flight, for example), she herself had never done so, being afraid that they would have a ‘paradoxical rage reaction’ – which is the medical term for waking up half out-of-it and tearing the plane apart.
I thought I had had one of those myself, in a deeply regretted incident at breakfast on the same ferry when my little son would not let me have a bite of his croissant and I ripped the damn pastry up and threw it on the floor. She said that no, the medical term for that was a ‘drug hangover’, or perhaps it was just the fact that an overnight ferry was not the best place to begin a diet. We then considered the holidays with children that we have known.
How much do doctors drink? ‘Lots,’ she said. Why are the McCanns saying they didn’t sedate the child? ‘Why do you think?’ Besides, it was completely possible that the child had been sedated and also abducted – which was a sudden solution to a problem I did not even know I had: namely, if the girl in the pink pyjamas was being carried off by a stranger, why did she not scream? Sedation had also been a solution to the earlier problem of: how could they leave their children to sleep unprotected, even from their own dreams?
But sedation was not the final answer, after all.
If someone else is found to have taken Madeleine McCann – as may well be the case – it will show that the ordinary life of an ordinary family cannot survive the suspicious scrutiny of millions.
In one – completely unverified – account of her interrogation, Kate McCann is said to have responded to the accusation that the cadaver dog had picked up the ‘scent of death’ on her clothes by saying that she had been in contact with six dead patients in the weeks before she came on holiday. My doctor friend doubted this could be true of a part-time GP, unless, we joked, she had ‘done a Shipman’ on them. Then, of course, we had to row back, strenuously, and say that even if something had happened between mother and child, or between father and child, in that apartment, even if the child just fell, then Kate McCann was still the most unfortunate woman you could ever lay eyes on.
And we are obliged to lay eyes on her all the time. This makes harridans of us all.
The move from unease, through rumour, to mass murder took no time flat. During the white heat of media allegations against Madeleine’s parents, my husband came up the stairs to say that they’d all been wife-swapping – that was why the other diners corroborated the McCanns’ account of the evening. This, while I was busy measuring the distance from the McCanns’ holiday apartment down the road to the church on Google Earth (0.2 miles). I said they couldn’t have been wife-swapping, because one of the wives had brought her mother along.
‘Hmmmm,’ he said.
I checked the route to the open roadworks by the church, past a car park and a walled apartment complex, and I thought how easy it would be to carry my four-year-old son that distance. I had done that and more in Tenerife, when he decided against walking. Of course he was a live and not a dead weight, but still, he is a big boy. Too big to fit into the spare-tyre well of a car, as my father pointed out to me later, when it seemed like the whole world was figuring out the best way to kill a child.
‘She was only a slip of a thing,’ I said.
I did not say that the body might have been made more pliable by decomposition. And I had physically to resist the urge to go out to my own car and open the boot to check (get in there now, sweetheart, and curl up into a ball). Then, as if to pass the blame back where it belonged, I repeated my argument that if there is 88 per cent accurate DNA from partly decomposed bodily fluids found under the carpet of the boot of the hired car, then these people had better fly home quick and get themselves another PR company.
If.
Who needs a cadaver dog when you have me? In August, the sudden conviction that the McCanns ‘did it’ swept over our own family holiday in a peculiar hallelujah. Of course they had. It made a lot more sense to me than their leaving the children to sleep alone.
I realise that I am more afraid of murdering my children than I am of losing them to a random act of abduction. I have an unhealthy trust of strangers. Maybe I should believe in myself more, and in the world less, because, despite the fact that I am one of the most dangerous people my children know, I keep them close by me. I don’t let them out of my sight. I shout in the supermarket, from aisle to aisle. I do this not just because some dark and nameless event will overtake them before the checkout, but also because they are not yet competent in the world. You see? I am the very opposite of the McCanns.
Distancing yourself from the McCanns is a recent but potent form of magic. It keeps our children safe. Disliking the McCanns is an international sport. You might think the comments on the internet are filled with hatred, but hate pulls the object close; what I see instead is dislike – an uneasy, unsettled, relentlessly petty emotion. It is not that we blame them – if they can be judged, then they can also be forgiven. No, we just dislike them for whatever it is that nags at us. We do not forgive them the stupid stuff, like wearing ribbons, or going jogging the next day, or holding hands on the way into Mass.
I disliked the McCanns earlier than most people (I’m not proud of it). I thought I was angry with them for leaving their children alone. In fact, I was angry at their failure to accept that their daughter was probably dead. I wanted them to grieve, which is to say to go away. In this, I am as bad as people who complain that ‘she does not cry.’
On 25 May, in their first television interview, given to Sky News, Gerry McCann spoke a little about grief, as he talked about the twins. ‘We’ve got to be strong for them, you know, they’re here, they do bring you back to earth, and we cannot, you know, grieve one. We did grieve, of course we grieved, but ultimately we need to be in control so that we can influence and help in any way possible, not just Sean and Amelie, but the investigation.’
Most of the animosity against the McCanns centres on the figure of Madeleine’s beautiful mother. I am otherwise inclined. I find Gerry McCann’s need to ‘influence the investigation’ more provoking than her flat sadness, or the very occasional glimpse of a wounded narcissism that flecks her public appearances. I have never objected to good-looking women. My personal jury is out on the issue of narcissism in general; her daughter’s strong relationship with the camera lens causes us a number of emotions, but the last of them is always sorrow and pain.
The McCanns feel guilty. They are in denial. They left their children alone. They cannot accept that their daughter might be dead. Guilt and denial are the emotions we smell off Gerry and Kate McCann, and they madden us.
I, for example, search for interviews with them, late at night, on YouTube. There is so much rumour; I listen to their words because they are real, because these words actually did happen, one after the other. The focus of my ‘dislike’ is the language that Gerry McCann uses; his talk of ‘information technology’ and ‘control’, his need to ‘look forward’.
‘Is there a lesson here, do you feel, to other parents?’
‘I think that’s a very difficult thing to say, because, if you look at it, and we try to rationalise things in our head and, ultimately, what is done is done, and we continually look forward. We have tried to put it into some kind of perspective for ourselves.’
He lays a halting and agonised emphasis on the phrase ‘what is done is done,’ and, at three in the morning, all I can hear is Lady Macbeth saying this line after the murder of Duncan, to which her husband replies: ‘We have scorched the snake, not killed it.’ Besides, what does he mean? Who did the thing that has been done? It seems a very active and particular word for the more general act of leaving them, to go across the complex for dinner.
There are problems of active and passive throughout the McCanns’ speech. Perhaps there are cultural factors at play. I have no problem, for example, with Kate McCann’s reported cry on the night of 3 May: ‘They’ve taken Madeleine.’ To my Irish ears ‘they’ seems a common usage, recalling Jackie Kennedy’s ‘I want the world to see what they’ve done to my Jack’ at Dallas. I am less happy with the line she gives in the interview when she says: ‘It was during one of my checks that I discovered she’d gone.’ My first reaction is to say that she didn’t just go, my second is to think that, in Ireland, ‘she’d gone’ might easily describe someone who had slipped into an easy death. Then I rewind and hear the question, ‘Tell us how you discovered that Madeleine had gone?’ and realise that no one can name this event, no one can describe the empty space on Madeleine McCann’s bed.
Perhaps there is a Scottish feel to Gerry McCann’s use of ‘done’. The word is repeated and re-emphasised when he is asked about how Portuguese police conducted the case, particularly in the first 24 hours. He says: ‘I think, em, you know, we are not looking at what has been done, and I don’t think it helps at this stage to look back at what could and couldn’t have been done . . . The time for these lessons to be learned is after the investigation is finished and not now.’
I am cross with this phrase, ‘after the investigation is finished’. Did he mean after they’d packed up their charts and evidence bags and gone home? Surely what they are involved in is a frantic search for a missing child: how can it be finished except by finding her, alive or dead? Why does he not say what he means? Again, presumably because no one can say it: there can be no corpse, killed by them or by anyone else. Still, the use of the word ‘investigation’ begins to grate (elsewhere, Kate McCann said that one of the reasons they didn’t want to leave Portugal is that they wanted ‘to stay close to the investigation’). Later in the interview the word changes to the more banal but more outward-looking ‘campaign’. ‘Of course the world has changed in terms of information technology and the speed of response, you know, in terms of the media coming here and us being prepared, em, to some extent to use that to try and influence the campaign, but above all else, it’s touched everyone. Everyone.’
The sad fact is that this man cannot speak properly about what is happening to himself and his wife, and about what he wants. The language he uses is more appropriate to a corporate executive than to a desperate father. This may be just the way he is made. This may be all he has of himself to give the world, just now. But we are all used to the idea of corporations lying to us, one way or another – it’s part of our mass paranoia, as indeed are the couple we see on the screen. No wonder, I think, they will not speak about that night.
Then I go to bed and wake up the next day, human again, liking the McCanns.
McCann family hits back at Enright attack
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Clarence Mitchell sent to Coventry instead of prison
Clarence Mitchell sent to Coventry instead of prison
Mike Rouse has blogged about a story I tipped him off about, and titles his post "Clarence Mitchell sent to Coventry". In my view, Clarence Mitchell should be sent to prison. For the reasons I explained here.
Mike Rouse has blogged about a story I tipped him off about, and titles his post "Clarence Mitchell sent to Coventry". In my view, Clarence Mitchell should be sent to prison. For the reasons I explained here.
US snubs China over the Dalai Lama and the Congressional Gold Medal of Honour ceremony
US snubs China over the Dalai Lama and the Congressional Gold Medal of Honour ceremony
George W. Bush is to attend the Congressional Gold Medal of Honour ceremony today when the exiled Head of State of Tibet, the Dalai Lama, receives the award for fearlessly standing up against the oppression and repression from the Chinese authorities following China's invasion of Tibet.
Legal Opinion: Has Britain been complicit in a US torture programme?
Legal Opinion: Has Britain been complicit in a US torture programme?
Some MPs believe British overseas territories have been used for the torture of terror suspects. Robert Verkaik, Law Editor, examines the evidence
Published: 17 October 2007
Diego Garcia, a tropical island located in the middle of the Indian Ocean, has long since given up its once-cherished status as a paradise destination. The last remaining coconut plantations were uprooted in the 1970s to make way for a US military base which is now home to nearly 2,000 American personnel.
At the height of the Cold War, the island's key role was to provide a home for US Air Force bombers and Awacs surveillance planes, as well as serve as a satellite-tracking station and communications facility. But independent military experts believe that, since 9/11, this horseshoe-shaped atoll has become the sinister destination for terror suspects who have undergone "extraordinary rendition".
A report by the Council of Europe published earlier this year found evidence that Diego Garcia was being used by the CIA as a secret prison and holding centre for people whom the Americans wished to interrogate and torture outside international law.
Both this report and human rights groups allege that Britain has played a complicit role in the use of the island as a staging post for international torture flights. Diego Garcia is a British overseas territory, part of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), leased to our American allies and still home to around 50 UK military personnel.
The United States continues to deny using the island as a torture base and Britain stands by this denial. But after the British government's belated acceptance of the unlawful status of Guantanamo Bay, some politicians believe Britain's stance on Diego Garcia is similarly untenable.
On 26 June this year, in one of his last appearances before Parliament, the former Attorney General Lord Goldsmith QC said that he had been assured that the island had not been used for "processing high-value detainees". In an answer to a question from a member of the Joint Committee on Human Rights, Lord Goldsmith replied:
We do not operate ourselves in Diego Garcia, as you will know, but I am aware that the United Kingdom has been assured firmly by the United States that it does not use Diego Garcia for the holding of detainees, prisoners of war or anything of that sort.
But such statements have not been enough to silence those who continue to doubt the reliability of American assurances. Yesterday, the Conservative MP Andrew Tyrie wrote to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, requesting that it investigate allegations of the use of British territory in the US rendition programme as part of its inquiry into the Overseas Territories. In his letter, he wrote: "There have been repeated allegations that the US has used the British territory of Diego Garcia in its rendition programme. Yet the Government has done next to nothing to investigate them."
Mr Tyrie added:
The UK government continues to turn a blind eye to breaches of the rule of law. Extraordinary rendition, whereby people have been kidnapped around the world and taken to places where they may be maltreated or tortured, demands its attention. It is high time our government took its head out of the sand and looked into these allegations for itself.
Should Britain be found to have played a complicit role in the use of torture or other breaches of human rights undertaken by American forces in Diego Garcia, then ministers could be held to account in a UK court of law or even face charges at the International Criminal Court.
Fears of torture for Italian gangster
Some MPs believe British overseas territories have been used for the torture of terror suspects. Robert Verkaik, Law Editor, examines the evidence
Published: 17 October 2007
Diego Garcia, a tropical island located in the middle of the Indian Ocean, has long since given up its once-cherished status as a paradise destination. The last remaining coconut plantations were uprooted in the 1970s to make way for a US military base which is now home to nearly 2,000 American personnel.
At the height of the Cold War, the island's key role was to provide a home for US Air Force bombers and Awacs surveillance planes, as well as serve as a satellite-tracking station and communications facility. But independent military experts believe that, since 9/11, this horseshoe-shaped atoll has become the sinister destination for terror suspects who have undergone "extraordinary rendition".
A report by the Council of Europe published earlier this year found evidence that Diego Garcia was being used by the CIA as a secret prison and holding centre for people whom the Americans wished to interrogate and torture outside international law.
Both this report and human rights groups allege that Britain has played a complicit role in the use of the island as a staging post for international torture flights. Diego Garcia is a British overseas territory, part of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), leased to our American allies and still home to around 50 UK military personnel.
The United States continues to deny using the island as a torture base and Britain stands by this denial. But after the British government's belated acceptance of the unlawful status of Guantanamo Bay, some politicians believe Britain's stance on Diego Garcia is similarly untenable.
On 26 June this year, in one of his last appearances before Parliament, the former Attorney General Lord Goldsmith QC said that he had been assured that the island had not been used for "processing high-value detainees". In an answer to a question from a member of the Joint Committee on Human Rights, Lord Goldsmith replied:
We do not operate ourselves in Diego Garcia, as you will know, but I am aware that the United Kingdom has been assured firmly by the United States that it does not use Diego Garcia for the holding of detainees, prisoners of war or anything of that sort.
But such statements have not been enough to silence those who continue to doubt the reliability of American assurances. Yesterday, the Conservative MP Andrew Tyrie wrote to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, requesting that it investigate allegations of the use of British territory in the US rendition programme as part of its inquiry into the Overseas Territories. In his letter, he wrote: "There have been repeated allegations that the US has used the British territory of Diego Garcia in its rendition programme. Yet the Government has done next to nothing to investigate them."
Mr Tyrie added:
The UK government continues to turn a blind eye to breaches of the rule of law. Extraordinary rendition, whereby people have been kidnapped around the world and taken to places where they may be maltreated or tortured, demands its attention. It is high time our government took its head out of the sand and looked into these allegations for itself.
Should Britain be found to have played a complicit role in the use of torture or other breaches of human rights undertaken by American forces in Diego Garcia, then ministers could be held to account in a UK court of law or even face charges at the International Criminal Court.
Fears of torture for Italian gangster
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
I think China doth protesteth too much...
Dalai Lama's US Medal Upsets China
China has reacted with anger.
``We solemnly demand that the U.S. cancel the extremely wrong arrangements,'' said Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi. ``It seriously violates the norm of international relations and seriously wounded the feelings of the Chinese people and interfered with China's internal affairs.''
I think China doth protesteth too much...
China has reacted with anger.
``We solemnly demand that the U.S. cancel the extremely wrong arrangements,'' said Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi. ``It seriously violates the norm of international relations and seriously wounded the feelings of the Chinese people and interfered with China's internal affairs.''
I think China doth protesteth too much...
Elvis Campbell has left the building
Elvis Campbell has left the building
Errrrm...I know that is David Cameron leader of the Nasty Party on the extreme right, and that the nice chap in the centre is Gordon Brown leader of the Labour Party and the present Prime Minister, but who is that on the left and what has he got to do with leaders of political parties? Perhaps, someone should tell messagespace, 18Doughtystreet.com politics for adults, and Iain Dale in particular, that Elvis Campbell has left the building...
Try this for size...
Or even this...
Hat-Tip for photomanip Ron.
Errrrm...I know that is David Cameron leader of the Nasty Party on the extreme right, and that the nice chap in the centre is Gordon Brown leader of the Labour Party and the present Prime Minister, but who is that on the left and what has he got to do with leaders of political parties? Perhaps, someone should tell messagespace, 18Doughtystreet.com politics for adults, and Iain Dale in particular, that Elvis Campbell has left the building...
Try this for size...
Or even this...
Hat-Tip for photomanip Ron.