Three Cheers For Ken Clarke 128

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I am an unabashed fan of Ken Clarke, and long have been. He was stating a simple truth when he created a furore by noting that some rapes are worse than others, a truth denied by politically correct feminist idiots who see rape not as what it is – a sordid and vicious crime of violence – but as a metaphysical act, incapble of degree, like the Eucharist. Murders can be aggravated or mitigated, but not rapes. What bollocks, and good for Ken for speaking sense.

He has now quite rightly castigated Teresa May’s claim that cat-owners cannot be deported as “childish”. Actually the frothy mouthed racist bigots cheering on their poster girl are much more dangerous than childish, but Clarke is right again. Doubtless a sacking offence.

Over 55,000 people were deported from the UK last year, and just 112 managed to stay here by using Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights – that is one in every 550 deportees, or 0.18%. Article 8 reads:

Article 8 – Right to respect for private and family life
1. Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence.

2. There shall be no interference by a public authority with the exercise of this right except such as is in accordance with the law and is necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security, public safety or the economic well-being of the country, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.

How the Tories manage to disagree with that is beyond me. Bunch of xenophobic idiots – apart from Ken Clarke, who as a young man plainly wandered into the wrong party.

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128 thoughts on “Three Cheers For Ken Clarke”

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  • Gaelstorm

    Speaking to the point of the OP, & not any specific cases, I have to say that I feel it’s a red herring to speak of EU citizens in this context. Law gives them a right to live & work here. The end.
    Steve: Craig is writing about false premises, not debits & credits of people going in/out of the UK. At the end of the day, these are people trying their best to get on as they see it.
    DLJ: I suggest you study the second law of thermodynamics. Or Keynes’ comment, “in the long run, we are all dead”. There are no “rights” for anyone, unless humans create & assign them.
    King of Welsh Noir: Not everything of importance has happened in the last ½ century.
    And as most seem to be posting off topic anyway, it would be interesting to read Craig’s take on this

  • Suhayl Saadi

    Cat owners? What on earth is the Home Secretary wittering on about? I agree with Craig about Kenneth Clarke, btw, that comparatively-speaking, he is rational. There was a time when the Conservative party was not the ideologically-extreme and childish party it is today, when it was a broad church which contained the likes of Ian MacLeod, Julian Critchley et al. Now, all the main parties are not very dissimilar, but they used to be dissimilar from one another in a number of important ways. The Labour Party moved so far to the right under Kinnock, Smith and esp. Blair/Brown, that Roy Hattersley and Barbara Castle – once identified distinctively as right-wingers within the party – came to seem as though they were on the left of the Party (remember that last party conference before she died when Castle looked as though, with a single withering glare, she would blow Blair off the stage!). So too Kenneth Clarke, who, along with Chris Patten was one of Thatcher’s young, fringed, pet ‘Wets’ – this was the man, remember, who along with right-wing ideologue (‘no-brain’) David Willetts, first introduced the ‘internal market’ (so-called) into the NHS with his notorious White paper of 1989/90 – now seems viscerally out of place in his own party. Is May trying to appeal to xenophobic dog-lovers, one wonders? Or is she just barking mad?

  • DLJ

    That’s exactly what I said. ‘Although strongly in favour of the extension of individual legal rights, he (Bentham) opposed the idea of natural law and natural rights, calling them “nonsense upon stilts.”

    There is, though, a residual problem here. The concept of a natural right, which can be traced back to the Stoic philosophy of ancient Greece – Zeno of Cittium was an immigrant into Athens forced to preach in the market place, the Stoa – accounts for the moral intuition that we possess duties and obligations to non-citizens. If an intuition is like a perception, which it is, then in some sense it has empirical validity.

    The real issue is the weak concept of Republican citizenship in our political system, as it is, in effect, a monarchy, and we are subjects. The HRA is a child of the ECHR, which is itself an extension of the UDHR, which, at the title suggests, is a universal declaration of the integrity of the individual, a moral reaction to the crimes committed against people by their own states, or the problem of displaced people; and an attempt to codify this horror into positive international law, which because of the weakness of the UN institutions is probably less than half successful.

    Once natural rights are codified into positive law, however, as is the case with the HRA, then the writ of the court, in effect, extends to the entire universe of human beings as the obligation of the court is also universal. It is the flip side of liberal interventionism, which upholds the rights of aliens outside the sovereign national space and intervenes to protect them.

    What we need is a British Bill of rights – the Tories are right about the idea though I don’t know the content – that grants rights to British citizens. This should exist alongside a European Convention which protects the rights of European citizens AND a Universal Declaration at the global level, backed by appropriate force. Of course, this is unlikely so these kinds of rights should be pursued through politics PLUS in out country and in Europe there should exist a fair way for ‘aliens’ to acquire citizenship and therefore the protection of rights by the courts. Presently, though, the coinage of human rights is being debased as it can be used as a means of acquiring citizenship. Citizenship is granted on the basis of positive action in, among and for the community whereas rights, for the individual are granted to the passive, rather than earned.

    It could be called a failure of the Republic, but we don’t have a republic.

  • John Goss

    Thanks Anon. Yes, I’ve noticed that from some of the comments. But there has been no coverage and there were apparently 10,000 there last Saturday.

  • mary

    May was capable of this injustice against Sheikh Raed Salah whom she had detained, arrested and inmprisoned. He was finally released by High Court judges and awarded damages.
    .
    Revealed: How UK government plotted with Israel lobby to ban Salah

    .
    As Palestinian leader Sheikh Raed Salah’s appeal against deportation concluded in a Birmingham court this week, new details of the UK government’s deep links to the Israel lobby have emerged.
    .
    This follows a separate High Court ruling in London on 30 September, when a judicial review into the government’s June imprisonment of Salah ruled he was entitled to damages for “wrongful detention.”
    .
    While a panel of two immigration judges is expected to deliver a verdict within 10 days of the hearing, internal government emails obtained by The Electronic Intifada show Home Secretary Theresa May moved quickly to ban Salah not long after the pro-Israel group Community Security Trust (CST) sent a secret report on him. The report contained quotes ascribed to Salah with the word “Jews” inserted into his rhetorical attacks on Israeli occupation forces, in an attempt to paint him as an anti-Semite.
    .
    The Zionists’ shenanagans are exposed in this article.
    http://electronicintifada.net/content/revealed-uk-government-plotted-israel-lobby-ban-salah/10458

  • Jack

    Guest – “…what does it matter which of the main parties Ken Clarke wandered into, he would be at home in any of them!”

    I can think of few current politicians, certainly in the cabinet and shadow cabinet, who wouldn’t be at home in any party. At a pinch at the very least. There just isn’t that much difference any more – in fact there’s often more difference between individuals than between parties.

  • Tris

    Clarke is a first class bloke, and off hand the only Tory I wouldn’t cross a continent to avoid.

    Theresa May is a devious cow with the dress sense of a character out of Star Wars.

    She should have been sacked long ago, but I reckon she probably knows some secrets about Cameron that he wants to keep quiet.

    I expect he thought he would look cool if he appointed a woman to a senior role. Idiot.

    I agree with Ken and with you Craig. If you wipe away the politically correct bollocks (that Tories usually profess to hate) on the subject of rape, then you can see quite clearly that there are many different degrees of rape. And if that has to be explained to someone, they should get out more.

    As far as this particular debacle is concerned Ken was right. May lied to get a standing ovation and a good headline in the Daily mail. Devious old bag.

  • Guest

    “I can think of few current politicians, certainly in the cabinet and shadow cabinet, who wouldn’t be at home in any party.”
    .
    I can`t think of one!, the Lib Dems are certainly at home in the Tory party. I will make you a prediction, when this financial armageddon really starts, we will have a tri-coalition government and the cessation of elections until after the emergency (that will be along time), 99% of our politicians are in politics for just one reason…themselves.

  • tony_opmoc

    When I got banned by Alternet last week after a Mammoth 12 hour continuous session (my Wife was away looking after her Parents), I wasn’t surprised. In fact I was amazed they had been so tolerant of me for so long.

    But I guess I went several steps beyond on numerous occasions on numerous subjects.

    So I thought, well I ain’t going back, but I looked again at the email accounts I had registered over the last 10 years or so.

    I don’t do email much.

    I was amazed that google/youtube had a history of every website I had searched over the last several years

    I was completely delighted to see the results

    I didn’t realise I was such a nice Family kind of bloke

    Tony

  • tony_opmoc

    What I wrote was deleted and I was so angry, I actually moderated it myself and finally posted a much softer version which was deleted too. I didn’t even save it to my PC…

    This was more than a week ago

    Today I read about a Wired Virus on Predator Drones or something

    You see when I was a kid I used to have a Boomerang

    Tony

  • Michael

    I am living in Ireland and on my last visit to our local Aldi store I asked one of the checkout staff when was the last time he had visited his native Turkey and he replied April. He then surprised me by saying ” I am now Irish ” After 5 years employment he had become an Irish citizen. He is a well respected member of the community and before this he was subjected to continual hassle every time he traveled to watch his beloved team Arsenal. With his new Irish passport he can now travel the world as an Irishman.

  • tony_opmoc

    Michael,

    Do we need a passport to get into Ireland?

    Its just that ours expires next year May 2012 and we have done it to fuck.

    We went to 12 Festivals in England This Year

    Sure we went to Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands too…

    But it was far too windy.

    I like nice calm warm sea

    Surfing is For The Kids

    Yes it was a nice hotel

    But we won’t be going back there again

    They didn’t like my Dress Sense

    Never had a Problem anywhere else in the World

    I Don’t wear Penguin Suits when it is hot

    Tony

  • anno

    Mary
    Thanks for drawing attention to the Sheikh Raed Salah Electronic Intifada report.
    When they say that Theresa May recognised that his case was ‘very finely balanced’ I take that to mean that the justice of his cause was so apparent that it would be difficult to swing the decision about him to the cause of the Israel lobby.
    The relationship between UK politicians and Israel is nearly as comprehensive as the British love of pets. Is this love of Israel – Empire by surrogacy? Like middle-aged British parents who cruise around in French people carriers with their children-substitute dogs?
    We keep Israel, like we keep pit-bull terriers and then show TV programmes of animal welfare charities complaining about the increasing cruelty to these savage and terrifying animals?!?

    The pussy-footing around about Zionism by Craig and others reminds me of a French pornographic cartoon I once saw of naked men buggering eachother in a line. They all take benefit!?!? from the power of the Zionist banks who control our lives. Everbody needs the banks to stay alive.
    Nobody dares to move against the bankers for fear of being shut down themselves. Everyones’ ears are blocked against the staring reality that Zionism is controlling and screwing up the entire free world and Islam is the truth. The only natural predator of the Zionist is a Muslim. Why? Because nobody else is interested in the inconvenience of the truth.

  • mary

    EU Parliament Takes the First Step to Prevent Sales of Surveillance Equipment Used to Violate Human Rights
    .
    InternationalNSA
    Spying
    The European Parliament today formally recognized what has become increasingly clear: some European tech companies have been selling to repressive governments the tools used to surveil democracy activists. In response, it passed a resolution to bar overseas sales of systems that monitor phone calls and text messages, or provide targeted Internet surveillance, if they are used to violate democratic principles, human rights or freedom of speech.
    .
    https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/10/eu-parliament-takes-first-step-bans-sales
    .
    European and American companies are involved.

  • anon

    Tony – Maybe you shouldn’t post while pissed off your head, and then they wouldn’t be deleted. Don’t worry about having that post deleted from a week or so ago – that was also nothing but worthless, drunken ramblings.
    .
    Why don’t you dry out a bit, you sad drunk old bastard?

  • Aaron Anonymous

    From the Mail story linked by Mary above:
    .
    “Mrs Blair also told British Airways’ in-flight magazine that a disappointment was never launching a warship.”

  • Quelcrime

    If the Bliar sprogs qualify for Irish nationality via their paternal grandmother, their father is automatically an Irish citizen too, whether he and the Irish like it or not.

  • mary

    Aaron Anonymous Yes I saw that. You could not make it up. Perhaps she has the same psychopathic traits as her husband who is responsible for enough killing for the pair of them. Did you read the other day that she is going into the health clinic business in UK supermarkets and shopping centres with a rich American woman? Money money money and never mind the ethics.

  • ingo

    Careless is a fine word for it Guest, diverting the cause of justice seems to have its own department in the Met, from CCTV footages to emails and reports, anything that jeopardises their positions or calls their criminal behaviour to account, alledgedly, is being disappeared.

    I hope that Rupert and his son will be booted off NI boards, not that a change of crew has ever changed a ships performance, perceptions of cannivances between media politicians and the 1% that is running us, seemingly into the ground, will not change much.
    We will face a global financial crisis and most likely end up paying for another war in the Middle east, until someone starts organising a tax boycott, the causual reasons will not change, they will morph somewhat but the establishment will use their power networks to re start the same loot again, we can see it now. Would they shoot at people asking for an English banking spring?
    The refusal to reign in British protectorate offshore tax havens, allowing the likes of the King of jersey, Tony Buckingham, to siphon off taxpayers money for more bang abroad, is down to this Consetrvative catnip cabinet.

    If EU Governments want the trust of consumers back, they better start tackling the likes of Goldmann Sachs, the rapacious end of global finance, who target any Government that does not agree with their kind of petrodollar business and is in debt.
    How come that we cannot force Switzerland to open their books, show how many of their Greek customers have only paid tax in Switzerland and those who have their public wages transfered directly out of the countries jurisdiction, the Greek establishment should be made to pay these 200 billion, they can afford it.
    Thats why the bailout stopped.

    I have heard over two corners that there are rumours that Germany is printing D-marks. If any of us could proof that there is anyhting behind this rumour such undertaking would really put the cat amongst the pidgeons, it would mean an end to the ECB as it exists, not to speak of the EU.

    http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1658517/pg1

    yesterday I talked to a white van man delivering his paultry 27 packets. Usually, so he says, by this time he would be busy shifting xmas goods already, he’s self employed and has to spend 35,-/day on diesel, not enough to make a profit at all.At this time before xmas I would have over 100 deliveries/day, he said.

    So all those hoping for xmas to raise our economy to the lofty hight of 1.5% growth, think again. Many stores will seize trading this winter whilst Oxfam shops will heave with people.

    I’m genuinely sorry for mentioning the jule period here, it is my bleakest part of the year and I should have known better.

  • Guest

    “The refusal to reign in British protectorate offshore tax havens, allowing the likes of the King of jersey, Tony Buckingham, to siphon off taxpayers money for more bang abroad, is down to this Consetrvative catnip cabinet.”
    .
    Ingo, remind me, how long were New Labour in power, they didn`t want to “reign in” did they!!!. “How careless of them!.”

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