Wednesday, April 30, 2008

McCanns: Spot the deliberate mistake

McCanns: Spot the deliberate mistake

"In the programme, Madeleine, One Year On: Campaign For Change, the McCanns tells how they considered taking their three children with them to another restaurant called the Millennium further away, but rejected the idea only because they did not have a buggy, they said".

Lock him up and throw away the key



Lock him up and throw away the key

The Tory blogger Guido Fawkes, real name Paul Staines, has been convicted of being twice over the drink drive limit, and driving without insurance. I have nothing but praise for the police officers who witnessed this drunken sod swerving all over the road, and decided to pull him over and subject him to a breathalyser test. On the other hand, Guido Fawkes/Paul Staines, had no praise for these police officers only doing their duty, and arrogantly dismissed them by referring to them as fuckers. I do hope that when the magistrates pass sentence, given that it is his second offence of drink driving, and fourth drink related offence, that they impose a custodial sentence of at least 6 months.

Original report here.

More on this story here and here, and here.

My Part In Iain Dale's Downfall by Hitler

My Part In Iain Dale's Downfall by Hitler



Clarence Mitchell, Iain Dale's spokesman, states that Iain Dale is disappointed about having to cancel his planned holiday in a bunker in Austria given the recent adverse publicity the country has received lately.

Posted by guest blogger: The ghost of Mike Spilligan

The very cheesy Iain Dale photo by David Bailey for GQ magazine

Authors denounce Tesco over Thai defamation cases


Authors denounce Tesco over Thai defamation cases

"Nick Hornby and other leading British authors today accused Tesco of mounting a "disproportionate" legal response to criticism over its operations in Thailand".

"We feel driven to take this action because we cannot allow Tesco's reputation to be so seriously attacked with such wilful disregard for the truth. We support free and open debate about the role and conduct of business so long as that debate is based on fact, not fiction".

Fact: Tesco buys cheap produce from suppliers who pay below the National Minimum Wage and this does not relate to Thailand but England. Every little rip off helps Tesco profits.

MI5 accused of colluding in torture of terrorist suspects


MI5 accused of colluding in torture of terrorist suspects

British agents alleged to have questioned men at Pakistani interrogation centre after they had been brutally mistreated

By Ian Cobain

Officers of the Security Service, MI5, are being accused of "outsourcing" the torture of British citizens to a notorious Pakistani intelligence agency in an attempt to obtain information about terrorist plots and to secure convictions against al-Qaida suspects.

A number of British terrorism suspects who have been arrested in Pakistan at the request of UK authorities say their interrogation by Security Service officers, shortly after brutal torture at the hands of agents of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), has convinced them that MI5 colluded in the mistreatment.

Those men have given detailed accounts of their alleged ordeals at the hands of the ISI over the last four years. Some of them appear to have been taken to the same secret interrogation centre in Rawalpindi, where they say they were repeatedly tortured before being questioned by MI5.

Tayab Ali, a London-based lawyer for two of the men, said: "I am left with no doubt that, at the very worst, the British Security Service instigates the illegal detention and torture of British citizens, and at the very best turns a blind eye to torture."

One man from Manchester says that in 2006 he was beaten, whipped, deprived of sleep and had three fingernails slowly extracted by ISI agents at the Rawalpindi centre before being interrogated by two MI5 officers. A number of his alleged associates were questioned in Manchester at the same time and two were subsequently charged. This man's lawyers say his fingernails were missing when they were eventually allowed to see him, more than a year after he was first detained. They say they have pathology reports that prove the nails were forcibly removed.

A second man, from Luton, Bedfordshire, alleges that two years earlier he was whipped, suspended by his wrists and beaten, and threatened with an electric drill, possibly at the same torture centre. His interrogation was coordinated with the questioning of several associates at Paddington Green police station, west London, and the questioning of a further suspect in Canada.

MI5 does not dispute questioning him several times during his 10 months' detention in Pakistan. At his trial, the judge accepted he had been mistreated but said he believed the claims were exaggerated.

No attempt was made to extradite either man to be questioned by police officers in the UK, and they received no assistance from British consular officials. They were eventually arrested on arrival in Britain after being placed aboard aircraft and flown in without extradition hearings.

The accusation that MI5 is at the very least turning a blind eye to the torture of British citizens - and may have actually colluded in their torture - is to surface in a number of forthcoming court cases, including the trial of the man who lost his fingernails, an appeal lodged by the man from Luton after he was convicted of terrorism offences, and a separate civil action being pursued on his behalf.

MI5 is thought to be considering a defence based on its officers' insistence that they had no reason to know that the ISI might have been torturing the men - a position that Pakistani lawyers and human rights activists in Pakistan and the UK say beggars belief. Even a high-ranking Scotland Yard counter-terrorism detective has conceded privately that there is little doubt that the Luton man was tortured.

The Guardian is aware of claims by a number of other British citizens that they were tortured after being detained as terrorism suspects in Pakistan.

The allegations being made by these men and their lawyers, which are detailed in today's Guardian, are expected to be raised by human rights groups. Andrew Tyrie, Conservative MP for Chichester and a campaigner against the abuse of the human rights of terrorism suspects, is considering asking a series of questions about the matter in the Commons.

Under the Criminal Justice Act 1988 it is an offence for British officials to instigate or consent to the inflicting of "severe pain or suffering" on any person, anywhere in the world, or even to acquiesce in such treatment. Any such offence could be punished by life imprisonment.

Last week it was disclosed that eight men freed from US custody at Guantánamo Bay had issued writs against MI5 and the Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, alleging they were complicit in their illegal detention and subsequent abuse.

The Security Service declined to comment on the allegations, but pointed to recent reports by the all-party Intelligence and Security Committee, which said all MI5 officers receive training about possible mistreatment of detainees held by foreign intelligence agencies.

The Foreign Office said it was aware of five British citizens being detained in Pakistan over the last four years for questioning about alleged terrorism offences, but would not say how many were detained before 2004. It admitted it had attempted to seek consular access to only two of these people, but declined to say how many had been seen by other British officials.

The FO also declined to say how many had complained of mistreatment, saying: "We have a duty to respect the privacy of the individuals concerned."

The London headquarters of MI5. Photograph: Frank Baron

Is Humpty Dumpty Brown heading for a great fall?



Is Humpty Dumpty Brown heading for a great fall?

Unity over at The Ministry of Truth thinks there's a funny smell coming from a skunk.

China jails 17 over Tibet protests


China jails 17 over Tibet protests

By Allegra Stratton and agencies

Seventeen people have been jailed over the most violent challenge to Chinese rule in Tibet for nearly two decades.

The sentences handed down today, ranging from three years to life, are the first since riots that began on March 10.

The official Xinhua news agency reported that the intermediate people's court of Lhasa – a Chinese court in the Tibetan capital – announced the sentences at an open session. China's state broadcaster reported that 200 people attended court.

Sentenced to life were Soi'nam Norbu, 20, a driver with a Lhasa real estate company, and a monk, named as Basang, from Doilungdegen county in the Lhasa region, Xinhua reported the court as saying.

The court said Norbu in a mob that burnt vehicles in a square near the Johkang monastery, smashed police stations and fire engines with stones, and assaulted firemen during a riot that broke out in downtown Lhasa on March 14.

"He was convicted of arson and disrupting public services," the court said in a press release.

Xinhua said Basang led 10 people – including five monks – who destroyed a local government office, smashed or burned and then looted 11 shops, and attacked police, Xinhua said. Of the five monks said to have followed Basang, two were sentenced to 20 years and the other three to 15 years.

China has said 22 people died in the riots. Tibetan exile groups say many times that number were killed in the uprising and ensuing crackdown.

Tibet and surrounding provinces where protests broke out have been closed to foreigners since.

Xinhua reported that the sentences came a day after Tibetan authorities announced the reopening of the Sera monastery, which was closed during the unrest.

"Monks have been taught legal knowledge in recent days and the monastery has resumed normal religious activities," said Tenzin Namgyal, deputy director of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee. He said other closed monasteries would reopen soon.

Chinese authorities have increased "patriotic" classes that require monks to make ritual denunciations of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader, and accept the Chinese-appointed Panchen Lama, while pledging allegiance to Beijing.

The protests started on the anniversary of a failed Tibetan uprising against China and were led by Buddhist monks. Demonstrations turned violent four days later as Tibetans attacked cars and shops run by Han Chinese, China's majority ethnic group.

Police and armed troops surrounded and closed down Lhasa's three main monasteries, Sera, Drepung and Ganden, along with the sacred Jokhang temple, while searching for monks to blame for the unrest.

So much for the POA claiming prison is too soft

So much for the POA claiming prison is too soft

Women stuck in foetid cells close to open lavatories in sweltering heat... oh yes, prison is so much fun

By Michele Hanson

Worrying claims were made last week by the Prison Officers' Association that men were having a fun time in prisons, with drugs and prostitutes, personal in-room telly, mobile phones, breakfast in bed available, and cowed, amenable staff - if that's what you call fun. But there's no need to panic. A new TV reality show, Banged Up, is planned for the summer, set in an ex-prison in Scarborough, starring David Blunkett as a parole officer, selected old lags, an ex-prison officer and 10 youths "on the cusp of a life of crime". It will show them and us just how horrid prison really is and keep everyone on the straight and narrow.

I am not au fait with what goes on in men's prisons - hopefully no assaults or bullying or adding nasty substances to the dinners or anything else too vile to show on telly, but as I live round the corner from the country's biggest women's correctional facility, in which my friend Rosemary worked for eight years, I am pretty sure that hardly anyone's having fun in there.

Week after week, on her way home from work, Rosemary would come blubbing in with terrible stories of your average day in the women's slammer. Here is one of the stories she came across. She met a woman who had been used as a child drug mule in Ireland during the Troubles. This woman had been banged up for 16 years, since her teens, and had no teeth. The prison hadn't bothered to send her to the dentist. She and Rosemary bonded over their missing gnashers - their chewing difficulties, the distressing visual effects - but at least Rosemary had replacements. When this woman was about to be released, and had promised to attend rehab, Rosemary begged the prison dentist to give her an appointment, so that she could at least re-enter the world looking presentable. "We can't possibly start fitting her with dentures now," said he. "She's due to be released."

The woman was sent off, by herself, a toothless hag, in search of a normal life, to find the rehab in Devon. But she didn't even know where Paddington Station was. She never reached rehab, and who knew what happened to her? Who cared? In prison, she and many others had a beastly time, often bullied, burdened with horrendous memories of family tragedies, or with their children left outside - and with nothing much else to do, their thoughts went round and round, sometimes driving them slowly raving mad.

I trailed round the prison one day with Rosemary and it didn't look much fun to me. It was baking hot, and as it was the officers' training day, all inmates were locked up sweltering in their cells, the air growing increasingly foetid, what with the sweat and the open lavatories. In their despair, inmates would crap into plastic bags and hurl them out of the windows. Who wants to live through summer stuck next to a filled lavatory? Outside rats gambolled among the piles of muck thrown from the windows: leftover dinners and all sorts of nastiness. Meanwhile, in the six-bed dormitories, inmates would divert and distress each other by playing with the Ouija board. "Imagine the hysteria in the under-21s wing," said Rosemary.

Of course there are classes in this and that, and talks and library, and gym and swimming pool and large grounds and gardening potential, but the big problem is getting the officers to escort you there. There are rarely enough even if it isn't training day, and anyway, loads of them are busy escorting prisoners to court and back or dispersing them elsewhere. Or taking them to hospital in chains. Rosemary spotted one last week having a fag on the steps of University College Hospital chained to an officer, and one poor woman prisoner in Stirling, seven months pregnant and on crutches, has been chained to male and female officers while showering, going to the lavatory and having a clinical examination.

It's difficult to forget about incarcerated women round here, with the slammer being so close. Pop into the library or walk to the shops in the sun, and there is the ghastly hulk of a building with all those women stuck inside wasting their lives.

Rosemary always hoped, while she worked there, that one day there might be a point to it all - that the staggeringly high percentage of women who were on drugs would get off them, that the women who couldn't read would learn how, and that the ones who couldn't cope with their misery would be helped. That better therapy than a cheapo short course of anger management might be provided. None of this seems to be happening yet. She also wished that alternatives to prison could be found for women on short sentences for weedier crimes. That would free up more prison places for men, seeing as they enjoy it so much. But Rosemary is still hoping. Rather hopelessly.

Monday, April 28, 2008

Clarence Mitchell calls the McCanns liars


Clarence Mitchell calls the McCanns liars

It has emerged that following Gerry and Kate McCanns initial claims that there was evidence of a break-in at their holiday apartment, which the police later stated there was no evidence of a break-in, now Clarence Mitchell has stated that there is no evidence of a break-in at the apartment.

The McCanns have so far not retracted their claims of a break-in at the apartment.

It follows that by making his statement, Clarence Mitchell is disputing the McCanns version of events.

This is not an issue where the McCanns made a mistake in the heat of the moment. They claimed that the shutters had been forced open from the outside, and this was how the so-called abductor had entered the apartment. They were not asked for this information, they volunteered to give it. When the police examined the shutters they discovered that they had been opened from the inside of the apartment. If it was not a mistake, then the version given by the McCanns was deliberate.

Why would the McCanns deliberately lie about a break-in?

To explain Madeleine's disappearance from the apartment.

Initially, the McCanns claimed that the apartment was locked. Hence the need for a break-in to explain Madeleine's disappearance. When the police rejected the break-in version, Gerry McCann changed his version of events from the apartment was locked to leaving a door unlocked. This would then allow the so-called abductor to enter by the unlocked door.

The shutters were opened from the inside of the apartment. Who opened the shutters? Was it the so-called abductor who had supposedly now entered by the unlocked door to effect his escape? I doubt this very much. It is more likely that one of the McCanns opened the shutter to create the impression of a break-in. The break-in was their idea.

Why was Madeleine's disappearance necessary?

The obvious answer is to cover up Madeleine's death.

It is no wonder the McCanns have no wish to return to Portugal to take part in a police reconstruction to help find Madeleine.

As the McCanns official spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, has now, in effect, called both the McCanns liars, by rejecting their version of the break-in, it leaves us back where we started with Madeleine missing. No abductor. Just parents for whatever reason who did not want to explain to the authorities what happened to Madeleine.

Clarrie admits no evidence of a break-in

RTE News video link. Clarence Mitchell's rejection of the McCanns version of events comes at 12 minutes and 30 seconds into the 22 minute video.

McCanns: Is a private prosecution the only way to get them into court?


McCanns: Is a private prosecution the only way to get them into court?

I am seriously considering bringing a private prosecution out against the McCanns because I feel that this is the only way that Madeleine will get the justice she deserves. I am not sure what happened about this attempt by Anthony Bennett. But I suspect that it fell by the way side because there are only specific offences which allow you to bring a private prosecution in England for offences committed in another jurisdiction, for example, Portugal. Whilst I have not been able to find any legal authority to bring a private prosecution in the UK for child neglect committed abroad, however, there is legal authority to bring a private prosecution for murder if the victim or perpetrator is a UK citizen.

UPDATE: According to wikipedia: "on 21 July 2007, the Crown Prosecution Service lawyers held "informal discussions" to consider whether any offence may have been committed under the Children and Young Persons Act 1933, which deals with ill-treatment, cruelty, neglect and abandonment of children under 16". This would explain why Anthony Bennett's private prosecution attempt did not really get off the ground.

Originally, the McCanns, in phone calls to relatives and friends on the night of the 3rd of May and early hours of the 4th of May, alleged that an abductor broke into the locked apartment via the shutters. On the 10th of May, the Portuguese police were asking questions of the McCanns: "about why the three children were left alone in an apartment, with the patio doors unlocked, while they dined at the restaurant".

Whilst it is interesting to hear about the second version of events, I am more interested in learning why the McCanns felt they needed to invent and publish the first version of events.

Fat boy slims

Fat boy slims

A US prisoner who entered prison weighing 29 stone is suing the authorities because he has lost 7 stone in weight. He is claiming that he is being starved to death in the process. I have no sympathy for his claim save for his complaint that the prison serves up cold food instead of providing hot meals. Because he over ate outside it would appear that he believes he should be allowed to over eat whilst in prison. I don't quite think he has got the purpose of prison right.

McCanns: Never mind writing a book, they should be brought to book

McCanns: Never mind writing a book, they should be brought to book

The latest money making scheme the McCanns have come up with to profit from the disappearance of Madeleine is to publish a book. It is claimed that: "The couple are determined to counter many of the false stories which have been circulating since their daughter disappeared in Praia da Luz on May 3 last year". But what about the false stories circulated by the McCanns themselves? For example, the fictional break in which the police discovered never happened? This puts the McCanns firmly in the frame for having killed and disposed of Madeleine's body. Why else would they invent a fictional account?

It is understood that the McCanns intend to use a ghost writer. What a shame that the ghost of Madeleine will not be able to set the record straight.

I find it annoying that Clarence Mitchell refers to "the night Madeleine was kidnapped" as though it was a fact that Madeleine was kidnapped. Let us not forget that this is only the McCanns version of events. The evidence does not support this. It is pure spin coming from a spin doctor who's job it is to sell fiction as though it was the truth. Another annoying comment coming from the lips of Clarence Mitchell is in relation to "Goncalo Amaral plans to publish his own book about the case", and that is "an attempt to make money out of the situation". From the word go the McCanns have made money out of the situation. It was not that long ago that they milked money from the findmadeleinefund to pay for their mortgage on their house in Rothley.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Nine killed in Honduras jail riot


Nine killed in Honduras jail riot

"Nine prisoners have been killed in a jail in northern Honduras during a riot involving knives and machetes.

It is understood the fight started after one inmate shot another at the overcrowded prison in San Pedro Sula.

Government official Hector Mejia said eight of the victims were gang members. Television images showed blood-stained prison corridors.

Violence is common in Central American prisons, which are often overcrowded and dominated by gangs.

Police regained control of the jail, which has a capacity of about 800 but holds 3,000 prisoners.

San Pedro Sula is Honduras' second largest city and a major manufacturing centre. It is also regarded as the country's most violent city".

I think it is just asking for trouble cramming 3,000 prisoners in a space designed to hold 800. And, it is not surprising to read that violence is common in Central American prisons. I don't suppose it helps if the prison authorities allow prisoners to possess guns, machetes and knives.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

The Three Suspects


The Three Suspects

On the one hand, the genuine case of a child abduction, for example, that reported in today's Daily Telegraph, "Ed Smart, whose 14-year-old daughter Elizabeth was abducted at knifepoint from her bed in Salt Lake City, Utah, in June 2002, was found - along with her abductor - the following March after a sustained and high-profile campaign".

On the other hand, also reported in today's Daily Telegraph, the question is asked: When is your baby too old for a sitter? I hope the McCanns and their spin doctor Clarence Mitchell, pause long enough to take a reality check: "It was all so simple when they were younger. You left them, bright and shining, in the capable hands of a trusted babysitter". The article hits the nail on the head with this observation: "Parents can be prosecuted if they wilfully neglect or abandon any child under the age of 16, in the words of the 1933 Act, 'in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering or injury to health'". In a recent Radio 4 programme, Rachel Oldfield (one of the Tapas Bar 9), claimed "There was just no way that they [the McCanns] were involved in anything to do with Madeleine’s disappearance. Anyone with an ounce of common sense really would be able to see that they couldn’t have done it". Her reasoning was based upon them both being doctors, and the fact that there were 4 other doctors in the group, and they are skilled in resuscitation. However, as the article goes on to point out "What you have to remember is that emergencies can blow up within seconds", therefore, it is commonsense not to leave a 3 year old and 2 year old twins unattended. Indeed, the article concludes with advice the McCanns should have heeded "Never leave babies or young children alone, whether sleeping or awake, even for a few minutes".

To date, the McCanns have so far failed to satisfactorily justify their decision to leave such young children alone for night after night whilst they went out binge drinking. Whilst Ed Smart is experienced in his own case, these comments of his, in my view, should be taken with a pinch of salt: "There is no question in my mind that they didn't have anything to do with Madeleine's disappearance...Kate is a wonderful mother and cares about her children and would do anything to bring Madeleine home".

Sadly, what is missing from this profile Clarence Mitchell, master of the Madeleine McCann media circus is the fact that Clarence Mitchell, whilst working for the British government, perverted the course of justice in tipping off the McCanns to the electronic surveillance by the Portuguese police.

This case might start to move forward again if Robert Murat was eliminated from the police investigation and his suspect status removed. In his place, whilst not involved in Madeleine's disappearance, Clarence Mitchell should be made a suspect for his involvement in the serious crime of perverting the course of justice. One can only wonder why the Attorney General, Baroness Scotland, has so far failed to bring Clarence Mitchell to justice for his role in this whole affair?

So this is a cushy life


So this is a cushy life

Outrage over prisons is best saved for the reality: ever more overcrowding and damaged inmates

Erwin James responds to this pile of crap with a well written and well thought out counter argument.

Here we go again. Contrary to what we are constantly told by liberals, do-gooders and bleeding hearts, prison is just a great big wheeze. Life inside is so cushy that none of the "lags" want to escape - or at least that is what the Prison Officers Association would have us believe.

Glyn Travis, the association's assistant general secretary, said this week that "members of the public are climbing over prison walls to take drugs into prison". He was referring to HMP Everthorpe, a category C "training prison" in East Yorkshire where, earlier this year, an investigation found that a drug dealer had indeed scaled the prison walls several times to deliver contraband to a prisoner through the bars of his cell window. The prison responded by moving the recipient of the illicit goods and bolstering security. It was a scandal, and a mark of shame on the competency of the prison officers at Everthorpe that such a farcical situation was allowed to happen - a failing that Travis chose not to mention.

Instead he decided to drag out the old chestnut about the enviable lifestyle apparently "enjoyed" by prisoners, particularly at Everthorpe. Life was so comfortable in there for the prisoners, according to Travis, that even though the intruder put ladders up to climb over the walls, "none of them tried to climb up the ladders and escape". Though, hang on a minute ... weren't the prisoners confined in their cells at night behind locked steel doors and heavily barred windows, far from the drug dealer's ladders?

But Travis had another, louder bee in his bonnet. He went on to say that the public would be "appalled" by the plethora of perks being enjoyed by the nation's rapists, murderers and paedophiles. "Prisoners receive a wage for being in prison," he said. They also "receive a bed, a TV in all cells, free telephones" and "breakfast in bed on many occasions". Excuse me while I splutter into my cornflakes. They receive a bed? And breakfast in it? Is that right? No, actually it is not. While it is true that they do get beds, most prisoners receive a breakfast pack consisting of a small portion of cereals, a third of a pint of milk, a tea bag and a sachet of coffee and sugar, which is normally handed out just before night-time "bang up". It takes determination not to consume this during the 12 hours or so until the doors are opened. Those who succumb end up with no breakfast at all.

Meanwhile, compared with call box prices on the outside, prisoners are charged exorbitant amounts for phone calls. And yes, those lucky enough to have jobs will receive about £8 a week. The unemployed - the majority at present - get £3 a week. None of this translates to a cushy life capable of "appalling" the public. I think that if people really knew what went on in their name in our prisons, they would be ashamed.

In response to Travis, Juliet Lyon of the Prison Reform Trust pointed out that as prison numbers have rocketed by 26%, staff numbers have gone up only 9%, and their training has been cut to just eight weeks. "As our overcrowded jails turn into warehouses, with prison suicides and incidences of self-harm at record levels, staff are being pushed into acting as nurses and turnkeys," she said.

There is no doubt that prison officers have a genuine gripe about their working conditions, but disingenuous claptrap will do little in the long run to further their cause. I hope the justice secretary, Jack Straw, treats it with the same contempt that Travis has shown to the people in prison whose safety and care his outburst has compromised.

· Erwin James is a writer and former prisoner
erwinjames@erwinjames.co.uk

So much for the POA claiming prison is too soft

Friday, April 25, 2008

Sarcasm don't you just love it?

Sarcasm don't you just love it?

click to enlarge


Hat-Tip Gingersnaps.

Mother fined for dropping 'a bit of sausage roll'

Mother fined for dropping 'a bit of sausage roll'

Oh for fucks sake! What is the world coming to? If I was her I would challenge them to produce the litter given that the pigeons ate the evidence! Haven't those idiots heard of using discretion?

Inmates ignore escape chance in 'cushy' prison


Inmates ignore escape chance in 'cushy' prison

For now, one word. Bollocks. (I will try to get back to this story later, presently I am working on a breakthrough in the McCann saga which will be a bombshell for Gerry and Kate McCann and Clarence Louse.)

Once again. Bollocks.

UPDATE: Talk about a good day to bury bad news, perhaps this case explains why the Prison Officer's Association came out with all the bollocks above?

"Fifteen former inmates have won a legal battle over claims they were mistreated and discriminated against on racial and religious grounds at Leeds prison".

Leeds prison houses more than 200 Muslim inmates

McCanns: Wake up and smell the coffee

McCanns: Wake up and smell the coffee

Here we go again. Yesterday the media advertised a forthcoming documentary made by ITV of the suspected child killers Gerry and Kate McCann as they employ a smokescreen for a Europe-wide Amber Alert. And today the media is advertising a Radio 4 programme which features Rachel Oldfield (one of the Tapas Bar 9).

I don't suppose I am alone in thinking that the Tapas Bar 9, along with Clarence Mitchell, should be lined up against a wall and shot. Rachael Oldfield is claiming to be outraged at what she calls the hypocrisy of the Portuguese police. Personally, I have every sympathy with the Portuguese police having to put up with the McCanns tactics to evade justice over the disappearance of Madeleine. It is nonsense for her to claim that the Tapas Bar 9 have had to suffer in silence for a year. Rather, it is us who have had to suffer the McCanns version of events in the media either directly, or through Clarence Mitchell. It is a bit rich coming from Clarence Mitchell that he accuses the Portuguese police of trying to influence the headlines. From day one this is precisely what the McCanns have sought to do. I agree with the Portuguese police who state that Clarence Mitchell is evil.

The Daily Telegraph quotes Rachel Oldfield as saying: "I was there on the night - it was agonising. There was just no way that they were involved in anything to do with Madeleine’s disappearance. Anyone with an ounce of common sense really would be able to see that they couldn’t have done it".

The problems with her analysis are that Madeleine disappeared before the McCanns met her in the Tapas Bar, and common sense dictates that the McCanns are involved in Madeleine's disappearance.

Why won't the FBI have anything to do with the McCanns and their campaign? Come on McCanns, wake up and smell the coffee. You haven't managed to pull the wool over their eyes have you?

UPDATE: Listen to the Radio 4 programme Searching for Madeleine here.

Bank robbers in court

Bank robbers in court

Whilst I am delighted that the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has won the first round in its legal battle over unfair bank charges, I am disappointed that I have to wait for a second hearing to discover if I can reclaim back all the bank charges NatWest has stolen from my Job Seekers Allowance.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

The McCanns new clothes...


The McCanns new clothes...

If ITV have not yet chosen a title for the Gerry and Kate McCann show next week how about calling it (no not Murder Most Foul) Crocodile Tears? You will note from the link that a famous example is Susan Smith, "later convicted of murdering her children, pretended to cry in early press conferences when she claimed to be a victim of a carjacking, exhibiting all the signs of weeping without actually producing tears".

According to the Daily Telegraph: Kate McCann "is understood to say that they would have used a baby listening service had one been available, but because there wasn’t they decided instead to leave Madeleine and their twins," Home Alone.

I think it is all very well trying to use that pathetic excuse after the event, when the McCanns were well aware when booking the holiday at the Mark Warner complex that such a service was not available. Why say such a thing when the better services of a creche and babysitting were available and they chose not to use them? It has to be ulterior motive. This is why the McCanns require the services of a spin doctor, Clarence Mitchell. The plan would not have worked had the McCanns used the child protection services.

Madeleine was already dead by the time the McCanns went out for their binge session and meal at the Tapas Bar on the evening of 3 May 2007. It is the only logical solution. Never mind red herrings like stranger danger.

The McCanns are in the altogether, the altogether...

Thatcher getting slain

Thatcher getting slain

I don't know what this is all about.

Could this be a clue?

Couldn't have happened to a nicer chap

Couldn't have happened to a nicer chap

Oh dear, I feel a 'what about the victim's of crime?' rant coming on.

1st car thief: We've never had it so good.
2nd car thief: Yeah, couldn't have happened under Thatcher or Major.

What if the car thieves were watching Mr and Mrs putting all their valuables in the boot of the car?

Firing squad in the firing line

Firing squad in the firing line

Unarmed and naked in bed, obviously he was not pleased to see the armed police in his bedroom. Could it have been a piss stalk that the police officer mistook for a gun?

Gun death family can sue police

In the Family way...

In the Family way...

Surely alarm bells should have been ringing in the prison department when the female governor of an Italian prison fell in love with a Mafia inmate being held on Remand in her prison? Instead, the relationship developed to the stage that the couple got married and had a child when the Mafia man was released. Strangely, the prison department supported the marriage. Now the gangster's moll has been arrested after it was claimed that she supplied drugs to the gangster's godfather whilst he was in her prison. The authorities were tipped off by the wife of another godfather. Whatever happened to Omerta?

I'm alright Jack

I'm alright Jack

I was amused by the interviewee stating, on the BBC 10 O' Clock News last night, that he sympathised with the view that prisoners in jail are more honest than MEPs. Certainly, if you or I misappropriated £160,000 of public money every year we would be in trouble with the law. That MEPs together steal £125M every year from the public purse is bad enough. To add insult to injury, the MEPs have just voted not to make public the report of the audit into their expenses fiddles. Whilst many of us are facing financial difficulties in paying ordinary household bills, those supposedly representing us are more interested in robbing us blind. There needs to be some mechanism in place which allows the public to monitor MPs and MEPs and stop this widespread abuse.

It's not unusual...

It's not unusual...


My initial reaction upon reading this story was 'You've got to be joking!'. He was convicted of the murder and two attempted murders of police officers. Each attempted murder offence carries a maximum life sentence and the murder a mandatory life sentence. That's a potential 3 life sentences to serve. He's over 40 now, and if he had to serve them consecutively, at 20 years apiece, it is very doubtful he would live long enough to be released.

I don't subscribe to the view that the life of a police or prison officer is worth any more than the life of any other citizen. In the 1960s Harry Roberts murdered 3 police officers and his life tariff was that he serve a minimum of 20 years. He was due for parole, but then the politics kicked in and he was transferred from an open prison back to a closed prison. It now looks like he will die in prison.

The introduction of natural life was meant to deal with multiple serial killers and those deemed too dangerous ever to be released. It is a very severe sanction and should not be passed lightly or to grab headlines in the tabloids or to appease public opinion. The sentence is unusual as it is not commonly used. So, his QC should win his nobody should be given a cruel or unusual punishment argument. However, in Williams v Home Office the argument was lost when the judge decided the measure had to be both cruel and unusual. For what its worth I thought the measures employed in the Control Unit were both cruel and unusual.

I doubt that the Court of Appeal will decide that a sentence which is authorised by statute, and lawfully passed by a judge with the facts of the case at his disposal is unusual punishment.

Yes, the cop killer is entitled to human rights. But, in this particular case I think his human rights have not been breached. He did not simply just shoot a police officer, he shot him again at point blank range when he was down and pleading for his life. I think that added factor tipped the scales of justice against him. I think even if his QC manages to argue that a 30 year tariff is sufficient, I doubt if the police would let the matter rest there.

Custody Officer arrested and in custody

Custody Officer arrested and in custody


You wont find this story in the latest news section on the Serco website. I don't suppose the driver, of the prison van taking prisoners from the courts to HM Prison Brixton, thought at the start of the shift that he or she would find himself or herself arrested and in custody before the end of the shift? That's all it takes is one slip.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Its official: The Treasury is a department for security

Its official: The Treasury is a department for security

According to the H.M. Treasury website:

"The Treasury is the United Kingdom's economics and finance ministry. It is responsible for formulating and implementing the Government's financial and economic policy. Its aim is to raise the rate of sustainable growth, and achieve rising prosperity and a better quality of life with economic and employment opportunities for all".

Gordon Brown, before becoming the Prime Minister, was the Chancellor. According to The Times:

"The power to designate people as terror suspects and freeze their finances was introduced without parliamentary debate by Mr Brown when he was Chancellor. He has declared that the Treasury has become a “department for security”".

Isn't calling a department for security The Treasury rather like Hitler calling the gas chambers The Showers?

Like the courts, I would question whether the then Chancellor had the public power to act as he did. It used to be that a suspect was an innocent person and remained such until charged with a crime and found guilty by a court at which time sanctions would be imposed. There is something quite frightening about a government department which designates certain people as terror suspects, and refuses to inform them of the details of the allegations against them so that they can challenge the accusations, and yet freeze their finances and they have to justify what they have spent £10 on. Given that MPs do not have to provide receipts for the £25 they can claim each day on expenses, it is a bit rich demanding innocent people justify the expenditure of £10.

When we get more terrorised by the government than we do by the so-called terrorist suspects, its time to let that government know it will not be tolerated.

Mayor fit to fiddle disability benefits

Mayor fit to fiddle disability benefits


Benefit fraud is a crime, no ifs no buts, claims the government. Nevertheless, this did not stop Keith McNiffe, the Mayor of Pembroke, from claiming more than £9,000 in disability benefits, whilst fit enough to be a referee and linesman at football matches. I note that his wife is Lady Mayoress, surely she must have known about her husband's fraudulent claims?

In any event, it was this statement "On his return to Pembrokeshire, Keith met and later married his wife Michelle while working at Castlemartin Camp and made his home in Monkton. They have two sons Stuart (18) and Daniel (16) who like their father are both qualified football referees and all three officiate at Pembrokeshire League matches." on the Pembroke Town council website which gave the game away by scoring an own goal. An anonymous tip off then led to the fraudster's downfall and his appearance in court.

If Keith McNiffe ends up with a custodial sentence, I'm sure his refereeing and linesman experience (albeit only at home games) will be much appreciated by other prisoners.

Tesco: Every little libel writ helps...


Tesco: Every little libel writ helps...

This case has all the hallmarks of being a loser like the McLibel Trial. Even if Tesco succeeds in proving that it was libelled it has already lost the public relations battle.

Mam...it's the dustbin men

Mam...it's the dustbin men


As a child I remember seeing the dustbin men come into the yard once a week and hump the galvinized metal dustbin on their back and tip the contents into the back of the dustbin lorry. Their job was rubbish collection. If there was other rubbish in bags or boxes next to the dustbin they would take this too. On one occasion I had left my bike resting up against the dustbin and this was collected and thrown in the back of the dustbin lorry. My foster father chased them down the road to retrieve the bike.

Where I live now, the dustbin men (or whatever they call them these days) still come once a week for collection. However, the dustbin is now a wheelie and made of plastic and must be placed outside the property boundary. If the lid is not closed because it is overfilled they will not remove it and empty it. I don't have a problem with this because mine does not get overfull. But, next door there are flats and foreigners living there and the dustbin is regularly overflowing and left and bags accumulate so there is more mess after the bin men have been. And I have seen the same picture in other streets when I take the dog for a walk.

I am aware that overfilling the dustbin is an issue. However, I would hardly call it the crime of the century to overfill a dustbin. This case sounds like a load of rubbish.

No sex please let's talk the night away

No sex please let's talk the night away


Could it be that Lembit Opik has charged his romantic visit to Rome and the engagement ring on his MPs expenses?

As Miss Irimia, 25, smiled and laughed at Lembit going down on one knee and proposing, Mr Opik added: "We were euphoric afterwards, walking around the city and then sipping champagne and chatting away in our hotel suite until the early hours. I couldn't ask for things to go better than they did".

I think if I had the chance of getting a Cheeky Girl alone in a hotel bedroom, talking the night away would be the last thing on my mind.

Bruce Forsyth examines his death mask

Bruce Forsyth examines his death mask



Either that or he's receiving the BAFTA Fellowship Award.

Learco Chindamo's release from prison may be delayed by 12 months


Learco Chindamo's release from prison may be delayed by 12 months

This report from This is London.

I would question Learco Chindamo's lawyer's decision to ask the Parole Board to delay making a decision whether to direct his release for another 12 months to give him a better chance at success.

Given that Learco Chindamo is a model prisoner who has done all the required courses and has displayed remorse, nothing will be gained by keeping him in custody simply because his lawyer has got cold feet.

The Parole Board should reject the lawyer's application which amounts to stalling for time. If the prisoner needed to undergo a course to improve his chances that would be one thing. However, to seek the delay on the ground that the Parole Board might not direct his release because it is deemed he will not have served long enough is nonsense. It is the Parole Board's duty to decide the issue on or shortly after tariff expiry.

Unfortunately, the Parole Board does take heed of tabloid headlines and the Board will come in for criticism if it directs the release of Chindamo. The Board and the lawyer need to exercise courage to make the right decision in spite of those trying to turn a criminal into a political prisoner.

Torture: What torture?

Torture: What torture?

If I was being generous this case may be an argument to support Jacqui Smith's call for the detention limit to be extended to 42 days. And even that might not be long enough. Al-Qahtani was interrogated in Guantanamo Bay for 48 days. It is arguable that it is cruel and unusual punishment in itself. Rather conveniently, any evidence that he may have been tortured has been erased when the US Military wiped the video tapes of the interrogation.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Billy Bragg drowns out political blogger

Billy Bragg drowns out political blogger


Here's a turn up for the books John Prescott had his snout in the trough until he made himself pig sick.

Photo: Ronskneesrantsandraves

Still on the subject of pigs. I note that Iain Dale, top political blogger, was on the Andrew Marr show this morning. However, I missed what he had to say as I had a more important task to get on with, that is, taking Rocky out for his morning walk. I seem to recall that Iain Dale has a link with Germany. German swine invade Britain.



I didn't think either Alistair Darling or George Osborne had anything interesting to say on AM, but the interview with Billy Bragg and then playing us out with a song from his latest album "Mr Love and Justice" made tuning in worthwhile.

Wake up call for Gordon Brown

Wake up call for Gordon Brown

Bob Piper's ring of confidence. Will Gordon Brown answer the phone?