This is a genuine offer. I will pay £100 to any person who can provide a convincing reason why Denis MacShane’s expense fiddling, involving his creating false invoices, was not a criminal offence. Your argument does not have to be unanswerable – merely respectable. Up to three prizes will be given, for the three first and not essentially the same convincing arguments.
This competition specifically is open to employees of the Metropolitan Police and the Crown Prosecution Service; we would love to know their reasoning. It baffles me. I confess I can think of no single circumstance in this case that would prevent MacShane being convicted for theft and fraud. What is the answer?
Denis MacShane is a criminal. If he wants to try his chances with a jury, the libel courts are open to him and I am here.
@Suhayl
Your link is to an article by Kevin Wiliamson, not a member of the SNP and a well-known radical writer. You may have read the piece a little hastily – he says that the meeting was innocent, but spun to seem otherwise by the Israeli propaganda machine.
There are certainly strong right-wing elements within the SNP but there is also a strong radical element. The latter have been a little too quiet of late, but showed up well in the NATO debate, although they lost it. At present appeals to comfort mainstream opinion in advance of the referendum will probably continue to trump concern at the recent rightward turn of events, but there will be a reckoning. A sample of anti-NATO speeches at the 2012 conference here.
The Lockerbie Case is to me the most concerning issue. The SNP had much to gain politically by revealing the corruption of their predecessors – and yet they did nothing. That can only mean external control.
Courtenay,
Yes, money has no memory – I would like a framed, signed photograph of the Craig family please – that would be splendid. Clark has my address.
O/T (on Savile)
Tom Watson: “I’m not going to let this drop despite warnings from people who should know that my personal safety is imperilled if I dig deeper.”
http://www.tom-watson.co.uk/2012/11/10-days-that-shook-my-world
|z| ≥ 0, |z| = 0 iff z = 0?
You’re kidding …
You couldn’t make it up- Part one…
http://www.ash.org.uk/media-room/press-releases/ken-clarkes-bat-role-makes-him-unfit-for-leadership
You couldn’t make it up- Part two…
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/22dbd8f8-13c5-11e2-8260-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2BFr5cgRw
Imagining the research materials:
Dear Moniker,
Well I know what you mean – he is one of the other side but, at the same time, he’s still a member of parliament and, well, it’s the thin end of the wedge isn’t it. If people start thinking we’re going to prosecute MPs every time they break the law, where would it stop? I mean, we can sacrifice one or two for the sake of PR every now and then. There’s still plenty of us left to receive the lobbyists but if we were all in jail, it’d get quite difficult to organise things.
Yours,
A Tory
Dear Moniker,
But he’s one of ours! We want people to think the *tories* are all criminals. We can’t keep finding our lot in court.
Yours,
A Labour Party Person
Dear Moniker,
What, do something that’s against *both* the other lots? Don’t be daft – where’s the gain in that?
Yours,
A Liberal Democrat Person
Dear Moniker,
But I thought it was a done deal. I’ve already booked my holiday!
Yours,
A person in uniform
Dear Moniker,
Why didn’t we prosecute? You see, it’s well known in the worlds of science and philosophy that you can’t easily prove a negative and the same rule most certainly applies in politics and law. I could explain why we *do* prosecute, when we do. It’s to maintain the general belief that if ordinary people break the law, they’ll get into trouble.
There have been several examples in recent years of important peole being prosecuted. This is sometimes because they’ve proved to be unsound (ie, they’ve started telling the truth to people) and sometimes because we need to avoid looking biased – but as we haven’t prosecuted in the case you mention, I cannot answer without having to explain a negative. So, sorry, no can do. Good luck with your research.
Yours,
A Civil Servant
Dreaming up a report:
Dear Craig,
I think the MPs have got so used to the idea that proper people have the option of resigning or retiring to avoid annoying things like being sacked or arrested that they have quite simply forgotten prosecution is a possibility. As to the MET and the DPP, I don’t know, but I suspect that anyone who has a deeply held wish to maintain the spirit and the efficacy of the law would have long since succumbed to a strong desire to give up public office and take up kicking lamp-posts instead, because it’s more satisfying. as a result, a generation are now in action who don’t understand the concept of the law at all. Witness the many news-munchers who’ve responded by saying ‘well, he’s lost his job and he’s not all bad.’
They’ll tell you anarchy and disorder are bad things, and yet they have no concept of how the law’s supposed to work, which is: you make the law as fair as you can, then scrupulously apply it to everyone, otherwise it won’t work.
(I added that last bit in case anyone who’s slipping off the edge reads it and thinks, ‘oh yes, that’s how the law should work!’)
Yours,
Moniker
The blessed Eid does seem rather a tardy diversion – it could be savagely critiqued.
I hope those celebrating it will not be too harsh. That’s Eid-al-Adha, btw,
not Eid al-Fitr (Sheker Bayram), which ends Ramadan. I was reminded of it by a Saudi friend (a native of Najd) who gave me sweets to mark the occasion on his way to the mosque last Friday. And, incidentally, a handshake, of which his Imam might not have approved…heck of a nice guy.
Habbabkuk,
I feel honoured that my insignificant contributions are perused with such a care. You are right that one can also write “amici degli amici”. But “dei” is the more common abbreviated form of “degli” like “isn’t” is an equivalent of “is not”. Unfortunately, no prizes will be won for your attempted interlocution.
Having waited a whole day for a call from Craig informing me that I have won his wonderful prize, I am a bit edgy. Somehow, and because of a tragic flaw in my character, I feel like committing a crime of Shakespearean proportions. Just like that McDonald, or whatever his name was, must have felt when he was riding high in the parliament, as someone called “Jerome” let us know in his marvelous explanation of the expenses cock up. The problem is that fellows like Macbeth do not usually survive such a fall. What are prisons built for, if not for those with some tragic flaws. Can you explain that Jerome, or are you in fact harry from StLuis who has recently attended some French lessons?
Thanks, again, Vronsky – for your superb analysis at 11:34am, 4.11.12.
Oh come on any outfit that is preparing to move its entire HEADQUARTERS to SAINSBURYS NINE ELMS “disabled toilet” with a linked secret entrance at CLAPHAM NORTH “DEEP SHELTER” is very likely to make other incredibly “iffy” decisions.
Screechingly OTT piece by Mad Mel here. But the history is accurate. PIE operated around the loony left of the spectrum, and it was not then considered right-on by smart lefties to tell its propagandists to fuck off. I’m not sure I disagree with her conclusion either, that the sexualisation of children by the MSM has a lot to do with paedophilia.
Warning: Frightening pic of Savile
…and a wholly unsexualised shot of Rihanna displaying her
assetscustomary chaste garb…it’s the Mail, stupid.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2221078/Jimmy-Savile-liberal-left-encouraged-sexualisation-children.html
“In the 1950s the Chancellor of the Exchequer Harold Macmillan put the financial benefits of cigarettes over the nation’s health, records show.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7427001.stm
I think that should read…Tory shareholders were making a lot of money out of it!.
re KOMODO and MAD MEL …. yes well back in those PIEish times MAD MEL was a Guardian leftie journo herself now she’s a “what’s not to like?!” unappologetic DRONE attack enthusiast/lover. Yuk.
Komodo,
Frightening indeed, like a komodo charge; filching, fraud, theft, debauchery, torture and murder and their human protagonists lay bare to us as the ‘awakening looms’ – yet fear has no meaning as progress unfolds.
Oh, yes, Ian. She was. Might be entertaining to see what she said then, mightn’t it? Sadly, that was pre interweb. And I don’t think her first paper, the Hemel Hempstead Evening Post-Echo was a hotbed of Marxism, either. It was owned by the Thomson Organisation and annoyed the print unions immensely.
She only got “Judeo-Christian values” into the MM once…didn’t mention the holocaust at all. Maybe she’s mel-lowed?
Nevermind, I share your anger even if I don’t always say so.
Courtenay Barnett,
to my horror, I have just noticed that you already and quite unashamedly claim as well as portion up the prize that I so greatly deserve. But should not a decent hunter wait before the game is in the bag? Even worse is that you are trying to bribe Craig by offers to buy his book. As you obviously try to make me to up your pathetic bribe, you are forcing me to conjure up a better option. Feeling raped, like that double A from sweden, I have no choice and propose to Craig that if he ever gets to Lyon, we have a modest grande bouffe in the Villa Florentine.
Another KOMODO n MAD MEL passing point … posted fraternally. The RELEASE COLLECTIVE in the PIEish era had to discus and decide on the matter (haven’t the date immediately to hand). I worked full time at RELEASE at that time and know for certain sure RELEASE voted not to support PIE activities. It was important for RELEASE bewcause it had a postal address groups/activists could use and it had to take a stand because that generous positive pro community asset was being PIE compromised.
It’s quite simple. Politicians live in The Land of Magic. Where’s my ton?
I think it’s safe to say PIE sullied everything it touched, Ian.
Komodo,
it is difficult to understand what you mean by “PIE operated around the loony left of the spectrum”. Can you be more specific next time. I doubt it that jimmy needed any indoctrination from the “liberal left” to fuck around, as that stupid rag is trying to insinuate. Pedophilia and rape has no political affiliation. That moron of a woman could have just as well written that Jimmy was encouraged by the queen and the pope to carry on whatever he was up to, when so honoured. Maybe she just confuses liberal with the libertine of Marquis de Sade variety, who was almost exclusively either and aristocrat or a member of the higher clergy. The tastes of aristocracy have probably not changed much since 18th century. Who is unconvinced, should look up the contacts of the famous pimp and murder Marc Dutroux from Belgium. I recommend
http://www.whale.to/c/dutrouxnihoul.html for a starter.
Karel, you say : “But “dei” is the more common abbreviated form of “degli” like “isn’t” is an equivalent of “is not”.
I of course stand (provisionally) corrected – do you think you could let me have a source for that, preferably in the form of a grammar (I can access most of them)?
Thank you in advance!
“the sexualisation of children by the MSM has a lot to do with paedophilia” – really? Isn’t that rather like saying that rape has a lot to do with women wearing short skirts?
In fact, go way back before the mainstream media and girls of 12 and younger were being sold off as brides. Like rape, paedophilia is the brutal exercise of power.
Not good to see girls exploited and dumbed down for the sake of commerce, of course. But ‘the Mail made me do it’ is hardly a defence.
re KOMODO and others re PIE in the PIE era – my take from living thru it is that PIE was another expression of contemporaries challlenging the status quo of the time re sexuality … the Underground Press / Counter Culture call it what you will media was full of instances of all kinds – with PIE deep down I can somehow imagine a idealistic adult individual believing that they could somehow have a loving peado relationship but I dont believe that in reality they could and certainly many others if such a concession was tolerated would have been incredibly exploitative and abusive. The practice simply should not be made legal or conceded. During the RELEASE decision discussions I very much had in mind the Soho Porn industry and others who would prove unprincipled and disgustingly exploitative. Rather like is the experience re other matters. Well you only have to think of the Fred West environment to know that anything would be likely there.
Karel: I meant that PIE, when seeking publicity, went for ultra-radical outlets. I am not suggesting that Harriet Harman was responsible for Savile, but I agree with Mad Mel, reluctantly, that her proposed legalisation of child porn could well have stemmed from her contacts on the far left.In those days, the Labour Party had a leftist component. For the rest, Mel Phillips is a well-known lunatic, and as I said her article is over the top.
Technicolour: “the sexualisation of children by the MSM has a lot to do with paedophilia” – really? Isn’t that rather like saying that rape has a lot to do with women wearing short skirts?
Fair point. But I think it’s more the result of my trying to compress the argument into a sentence. Mel’s going for the Mail’s readership, as well, to which your objection might not be such a problem. I’ll suggest, rather, that the more barriers you put between the paedophile and his victim, the better. If children were not encouraged to imitate the signals of sexual availability, that would be a partial barrier. I’d also suggest that regarding sex generally as a commodity rather than a part of a loving relationship is not helpful: the ball for that being in Mel’s capitalist court this time.
It seems to me Melanie Phillips has got her knickers in a twist.
I agree society prepares our children physically to make love by education; and so it should. That is ‘ethical grooming’ and quite different from ‘immoral grooming’ that attempts to make a child subservient to licentious sex.
She litters a page with “..paedophilia is most pronounced in areas where the traditional family has been smashed” is a sweeping statement corrupting implication and made by a lack of understanding and knowledge.
Respect for young life in society has been proved absent when soldiers murder and rape young boys and girls, when wire pulling drones kill innocent children, when infants are left to starve from malnutrition and treatable disease and when human predators paint over respect to control their prey and selfishly satisfy their own desires.
She ALWAYS has her knickers in a twist, Mark. And she staunchly defends the “right” of Israel to kill civilians. But this issue is not about that. Should we only admit the opinions we want to read? Or are our minds fixed in concrete?
Anyway, as always, I’k glad to provoke discussion.
Wrt Scotland’ independence debate, here’s another interesting site:
http://republicancommunist.org/blog/tag/city-of-london/
No this is not about the apologies to murder of Israeli’s, she is now being apologetic about the alleged murders of children, no change there then. To make out that those who, by the good fortune of a better education and high standing, although failed to adhere to the morals and rules society is set upon, have nothing to do with it, their intelligence did not stop them doing what they did, but it was the nasty lefties who ‘s liberalism and laid back hippydom has poisoned society with their child abuse agenda.
I would have thought that covering up this pile of manure any further would land you with dirty boots, what a conniving back room operator. The sexualisation of our children is not down to left or right, its down to the fact that the system we are living under has never been reformed that it has carried on regardless of the law and that due to these outlandish and old fraternal bonds, these people never got prosecuted or told that they are abusing young children ruining their life’s.
To make out that a well educated elite, politicians and leading lights in industry are not able to think for themselves and have no understanding of right or wrong, are so inept as to be led astray by a liberal left, can only come from a disturbed brain.
I think Melanie’s journalism is very much tainted by her lack of sexual pleasure and I would like to give her some advice, cause matchmaking will most definitely fail, do swap hands Mel.
Mad Mel is just part of the fake BBC. Irrelevant inaccurate and part of the marketing dept. of UK plc.
Should read before post…
should read ‘of murder by the Israeli’s’ sorry.