After such an extended break from blogging, you will be deeply disappointed that I restart with something as mundane and trivial as Jeremy Clarkson. I have defended the man in the past, because I much enjoy Top Gear and consider that much of what he has been criticised for in the past had been an amusing winding-up of the po-faced of the kind I employ myself. But nasty, indeed vicious bullying of a subordinate should always be a sacking offence.
That did not ought to be the question, though. He hit someone and they had to go to hospital. Where are the police? They are incredibly fond of sweeping up scores of teenagers for thought crime, but here we have an actual violent assault that spills blood, and it seems completely out of the question the perpetrator is brought to account. Why is that? I had a personal experience a couple of years ago when I was very mildly hurt – less than young Oisin – in an assault, and the police insisted on arresting the perpetrator despite my repeated requests to them not to do so. They told me rather firmly that the idea that it is the victim who has a say in pressing charges, is a myth. Why was Clarkson not arrested?
I cannot in my mind dissociate this from the non-arrest of Jimmy Savile for his crimes, despite their being well-known and reported at the time. That seems to link in to the wider paedophilia scandal, and the question of why no action was taken even in the most blatant of cases when there was compelling evidence, such as that of the extremely nasty Greville Janner MP.
But then I think still more widely as to why, for example, Jack Straw has not been charged with the crime of misfeasance in public office after boasting of using his position to obtain “under the radar” changes in regulations to benefit commercial clients, in exchange for cash. I wonder why a large number of people did not go to jail for the HSBC tax avoidance schemes or the LIBOR rigging scandal, which involved long term dishonest manipulation by hundreds of very highly paid bankers.
At the top of the tree is of course the question of why Blair has not been charged for the crime of waging illegal war. The Chilcot Inquiry heard evidence that every single one of the FCO’s elite team of Legal Advisers believed that the invasion of Iraq was an illegal war of aggression. Yet now the media disparage as nutters those who say Blair should be charged.
Then I think of all the poor and desperate people who get jailed for stealing comparatively miniscule amounts in benefit fraud, or the boy who was jailed for stealing a bottle of water in the London riots.
The conclusion is that we do not have a system of justice in this country at all. We have a system where the wealthy and governing classes and those associated with them enjoy almost absolute impunity, broken in only the rarest of cases. At the same time those at the bottom of the pile are kicked hard to keep them there. There is no more chance of justice against those in power in the UK than there is of the killers of Nemtsov being brought to book in Russia.
But what has really scared me is this thought. This situation has been like this my entire life: and I have reached the age of 56 before I realised it. A very great many people have still not realised it at all.
What does not scare me is this. I realise that if the system of justice is completely corrupted, then there is no obligation on me to follow the laws of the state. In fact it would be wrong of me to do so. I must seek my ethical compass elsewhere than in the corrupt power structure which weighs so hard upon the people.
Craig, I’m still with you 100%, although this will probably be my last post in the comment section of your blog.
Stop breathing a sigh of relief…
Welcome back Craig, I was fair missing your incisive posts.
I’m glad you’ve chosen Clarkson. I wondered exactly the same as you – why was he not arrested for assault? Why has the media not raised the fact that he was not arrested for assault?
In last year’s indyref, two teenage sisters were threatened by a snarling mob of Unionist thugs in Glasgow in George Square on the evening after the referendum whilst commiserating with other Yessers. They were arrested, or so the police said, ‘for their safety’. Six months later ‘all charges were dropped’. What charges? They were victims, not villains.
But perhaps because it was a mellee, the police were uncertain as to who started it, and maybe it was the same here with Clarkson. Maybe there’s more to it than meets the eye.
But you would expect that he would be taken in for questioning, at least.
The fact that he hasn’t is just extraordinary.
But the most depressing thing is the 350,000 + who have signed a petition for his reinstatement. What is going on in the minds of these people? What had happened to their moral compass? They have put their entertainment above right and wrong.
That is the sad state of this country.
It makes me sick, because the rot is not just at the top, but all the way through.
Privilege = Private Law
RobG
I should be most sorry. Stay with us awhile.
The state is the enemy of the people. Good people disobay bad laws!
Congratulations on making the breakthrough, Craig! You are a clever man, with more experience of the wide world than most. Against that, you are an idealist, and hesitate to think ill of anyone. But you have seen the light, while the vast majority of our fellow human beings die without ever doing so. “It is darkest before the dawn”.
” I realise that if the system of justice is completely corrupted, then there is no obligation on me to follow the laws of the state”.
Not according to Hobbes, or the prevailing “social contract” theory. They declare that the individual chooses to give up his rights to the state in return for services rendered – mainly safety. But it is always the state itself that decides what those services are and how they shall be rendered.
Personally, I think all those theories are crap thought up by lawyers. We are social animals by nature, trying to live in an extended family or clan of 20-50 when in fact our society is numbered in tens of millions. This allows the silverbacks (I use the term loosely) to run things much as they wish, in the way you colourfully describe.
“There is no more chance of justice against those in power in the UK than there is of the killers of Nemtsov being brought to book in Russia”.
As it happens they have been arrested and are being dealt with right now. Unfortunately the people who paid them to commit the murder are beyond the reach of justice. Both because they have installed sufficient cut-outs, and because even if they were identified and proven guilty beyond a shadow of doubt, the US government would protect them from punishment. (In the spirit of the notorious “The Hague Invasion Act”).
Having some experience with family law, I can say with more certainty than anything that justice in this country is simply about protecting the status quo. For me, that meant a five-year battle just to stay involved with my children after a divorce in which all the tricks in the book were employed and the court was only too happy to go along with them, until it realized that there was no case against me. After that battle, I then quickly realized that this was just the beginning, and now began the long agony of having to deal with another criminal organization, which demoted me to a non-resident parent simply on the basis of my gender (even though my children are with me four days a week), in order to extract what is called maintenance. The other parent earns more than me, I am below the poverty threshhold, and I am struggling to balance work and family life, but for no other reason than my gender I never see 30 percent of my income. It is as if I am being slapped on the wrist for wanting to be a responsible parent, and told that if I want to eat and have a roof over my head, I should give up on my children and work at Tesco’s 24 hours a day. If this is not class warfare, I don’t know what is. And it is no lie that the justice system is part of this.
Moving on, Craig: take a look at Geopolitics leading to Lockerbie
well said craig and welcome back…they are all criminals the lot of them…the police protect them. That is the job of the police, to protect the Elite, not to keep the peace
Quite so, Craig. Probably helps if you have dinner with the PM once in a while…it worked for Rebekah, too. Glad you’re back – does this mean that your opus is now complete?
“I have reached the age of 56 before I realised it… I must seek my ethical compass elsewhere than in the corrupt power structure”
Fair enough. But what does that mean? one man’s corrupt power structure is merely another’s honesty deficit. You won’t get far in the SNP talking defiance of the law. You can be certain of that.
Take Greece. A democratically elected governemnt with a clear strong mandate. The bankers said no. Where the power lies is crystal clear.
The existing political structures were made by the rich for the rich. All parties, all centralised institutions are stolen. A serious redirection of human effort is not possible in a system designed for corruption.
It is really good to have you back, Craig. I hope your time away has been productive.
Thought-provoking post that covers a great many areas that need commenting upon. I agree completely with your comments on Jeremy Clarkson. I will just share a couple of comments I put up on Facebook over the past few days. I should of course have added the proviso that I was commenting without knowing the full facts – mea culpa.
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11/03/2015
Jeremy Clarkson could get two pay-offs if forced out of BBC over Top Gear gaffe
telegraph.co.uk
.
If I punched a colleague at work, no matter what the reason, that would constitute gross professional misconduct, and my employer would have the right to dismiss me instantly without compensation.
How comes it, then, that Jeremy Clarkson may be entitled to walk away with pay-offs from our money, from the BBC? Suppose he’d knocked the producer down and killed him. Would he be entitled to a pay-off then? What does a celebrity presenter have to do, in order to be got rid of without compensation?
J x
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/10808089/Jeremy-Clarkson-could-get-two-pay-offs-if-forced-out-of-BBC-over-Top-Gear-gaffe.html
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12/03/2015
Again, I find this amazing. Absolutely amazing. Why should we – not the BBC – we – be liable for millions of pounds of compensation because some spoiled little thug can’t go to work without punching his colleagues?
I repeat, suppose he had struck this producer – no matter what the producer’s sins (so, what, a multi-millionaire can’t telephone for a pizza, or have someone do it for him?) – knocked him over, broken his skull, and killed him, as is perfectly possible. Then what? Millions of pounds of compensation to him and to all sorts of other people because it’s not safe to work with him? Why can’t they make the rest of the programmes without him, immediately? Then it would be up to the other companies whether to accept them or not.
I’ve watched Top Gear and I’ve read one of Clarkson’s books. Never again.
J x
http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/bbc-faces-multimillion-pound-bill-from-jeremy-clarkson-suspension/ar-AA9DEYu?ocid=iehp
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Kind regards,
John
I meant to add:
RADICAL DECENTRALISATION NOW!
Well another good piece Craig, only marred yet again, as was a previous recent piece, by an unnecessary, out of place dig at Russia; yet you claim that you harbor no Russophobia, or perhaps is it that you simply get your cheap kicks by “winding-up” the “Putinistas”, as you term the critics of your Russophobic agenda ?
Are you insinuating that Putin was behind the murder of Nemtsov, if so on what evidential basis, apart from a feeling in your water ?
I would like to say that some very apposite worthwhile points are made in this latest posting. In terms of the legal system being operated selectively etc by the powers that variously be I would like mention a mid Seventies curious example. In the mid Seventies a very very militant East End direct action campaign to free GEORGE DAVIS wrongly convicted of an Ilford armed robbery. It was a very militant exceptional campaign and suddenly just a few months or so after a failed Appeal he was freed by Royal Prerogative of Mercy but still declared to be GUILTY on his release and told he still had 17 years to do! When the system is up against it there is no end to the strokes it will pull when it gets in a very tight spot.
Gaun yersel Craig!!! Brilliant.
I despair, I weep, I get so f***ing angry. Keep up the good fight.
“The trust of the people in the leaders reflects the confidence of the leaders in the people.”
Paulo Freire
In the later Roman Empire, they made the distinction explicit: there was one law for the honestiores (the upper class), and another law for the humiliores (everybody else).
@Craig
16 Mar, 2015 – 9:28 pm
Thank you, Craig.
It’s quite breathtaking how these vermin (from all political parties) continue to get away with conning the public.
Westminster is now so corrupt it’s beyond belief.
I refer readers to any political headlines from today, 16th March, from whatever your preferred news source is. And in case you think I’m bashing the tories, here’s a good one today about Tony Blair…
http://www.exaronews.com/articles/5520/revealed-tony-blair-s-lobbying-for-palestinian-telecoms-deal
The petition to reinstate Clarkson had reached near a million signatures last I heard, fastest growing ever on change.org.
Can someone be a man of the people yet not a man of the people at the same time.
I completely agree Craig. I have even taken to signing a petition to sack Clarkson!
And tonight’s news that top people in the police and BBC only goes to prove that our system of government and the old boy network is rotten to the core
Regarding Clarkson, it would be interesting to learn what was said and done before the smack. I bet Clarkson – as a constant pain in the politically correct backside of the BBC – was (more or less subtly) provoked – the BBC slime must be experts at that.
And, since, as you say, the system of justice is so completely rotten, violence may not be such an objectionable way of resolving your problems. It is, for instance, far more effective – and it would cost you only a fraction of the money you would otherwise spend on lawyers – to hire a bruiser to obtain justice on your behalf rather than waste time and put up with the corruption of the British justice system.
And in case you think I’m bashing the tories, here’s a good one today about Tony Blair…..
Please tell me the difference.
“I completely agree Craig. I have even taken to signing a petition to sack Clarkson!
And tonight’s news that top people in the police and BBC only goes to prove that our system of government and the old boy network is rotten to the core”
Ah there’s a petition to sack him as well, that’s good, I’m a great believer in democracy.
How many signatures have you got?
@Ba’al Zevul
16 Mar, 2015 – 11:32 pm
I don’t see any difference, and perhaps that was the point I was trying to make.
Now come, let me try and sell you some snake oil, or perhaps a ‘get rich quick sceme’.
We are all entirely trustworthy people.
Even if my spelling is a bit dodgy.
GF, you’re not Darius are you? Cos’ if you are, Boris says not to phone him for a while.
“Where are the police?”
“Why is that?”
“Why was Clarkson not arrested?”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chipping_Norton_set“>Chipping Norton Set
“Where are the police?”
“Why is that?”
“Why was Clarkson not arrested?”
Chipping Norton Set
I too thought the Nemtsov bait was a bit incongruous but the post is otherwise fine. Welcome back!
I don’t share your former sympathies for Jeremy Clarkson. Recently I discovered he came from Tickhill, a village a few miles from where I lived as a child. There are mixed feelings in the area about what kind of a person he is which split broadly into two categories, men think he’s a man’s man and women can’t stand him. I’m with the women but I realise he is popular. My stepson, a car enthusiast, reckons he’s all right unless his woman is around. Clarkson is his own worst enemy. But he has form for this kind of thing and ought to be charged for assault for his own good.
Piers Morgan has had experience of Clarkson’s temper. In episodes which say as much about the tabloid press as either Morgan or Clarkson the Mirror ran some pictures of Clarkson (a friend of Morgan’s) snogging his producer in his car. Beforehand Clarkson pleaded with Morgan not to run the photos, even claiming nothing could happen because he was not capable, but on the knowledge that if the Mirror did not run them another tabloid would they went ahead. This caused ructions but they patched it up. Another photographer caught Clarkson groping the same woman producer up an alley some time later. Again Clarkson begged not to run the photos. The Mirror went ahead.
At some press award ceremony a well-oiled Clarkson, who had won nothing, and whose wife was glaring daggers at Morgan, came to the editor’s table and offered to put everything behind them. Morgan spotted Clarkson’s wife and her uncomfortable stare and said: “Why does your wife always blame me for everything you do?”
With even more venom than Fred, Clarkson said: “How dare you attack my fucking wife. . . cunt” and thumped him one. He later tried to head-butt Morgan but was too drunk and missed.
Of course that is just Pier’s viewpoint.
Clarkson thumped Morgan back in 2004. How many more thumpings he’s dished out is anyone’s guess. Jeremy Clarkson is a man who is growing old without growing up. But I don’t like him because he has racist, sexist and other unworthy tendencies!