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.
Guy
22/03/2015 4:25 pm
Many thanks for your contribution. I wanted to offer some thoughts on it.
I don’t know how many people regard the system of justice in this country as essentially fair and how many regard it as essentially corrupt. I would be surprised if there are many people who would deny that it is corrupt at all. I also understand that there are very important cases where the inability of the justice system to act may have had a profound economic effect, for example, the LIBOR rigging scandal. But for most law-abiding people, the justice system, probably, is simply not perceived as having a major impact on their lives. There’s nothing like personal experience, and if people have, say, served on a jury, or sued and won in small claims court, or been the victim of minor or major crime and seen a conviction, they will probably regard the justice system as largely working okay. That’s perfectly reasonable, and there is no need to blame it on brainwashing.
I also think that the costs and difficulties of bringing a conviction against extremely wealthy people, who can hire the best solicitors and barristers to delay and obfuscate the legal process, are perhaps not fully taken into account when saying “why isn’t this or that person in court / jail / whatever”. Chris Huhne is a case in point. As I understand it, the evidence against him could not have been clearer, as he himself evidently believed when he changed his plea to guilty on the eve of his trial. But to get him to that point at all consumed an enormous amount of public resources. How much more difficult would LIBOR rigging be to prosecute and prove?
However, I agree that there is a huge cultural influence on people from childhood, through schooling, cartoons, television etc to idealize the system of justice as fair and reasonable.
I have already commented that to perceive the system of justice as corrupt in no way should relieve anyone of the obligation to abide by the laws of the state. That does not follow at all. If people at the top of society can get away with murder, for example, that does not mean I am entitled to murder whoever I like.
Incidentally, the kinds of people who will willingly take LSD probably have quite a libertarian approach to their own perceptions already. I am not sure that handing it out willy-nilly would be helpful in shaking the rigidity of many people’s perceptions.
Kind regards,
John
Resident Dissident; “I would cut the talk about goldfish memory if I were you.”
Found it ! You have to follow our exchanges to make proper sense of the remarks.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2014/03/the-wrong-referendum-the-wrong-saviour/comment-page-2/#comment-446464
You are also on that thread, so really surprised you didn’t remember it as judging my your anti-Russian obession, it could be a sentiment that may have chimed with you perhaps ?
“..as I have too much respect for the Truth, and too much self-respect to degrade myself by having to deliberately lie”
______________
Tell me, someone – anyone : is Macky trying to be funny or is it entirely natural?
Whichever, the above is probably the best he’s come out with…ever! 🙂
“Resident Dissident 9:58 am
That Wikipedia page on Dmitry Rogozin says he isn’t a Rodina party member any more.”
He also says why he left – too left wing for his taste – note his comments about immigrants which would immediately have him labelled as fascist by this blog’s most prominent fascist labeller if he were British or American.
Macky
“Habbabkuk; “Craig for having admonished you for a couple of stupid remarks some time ago”
I have no recollection of such like..”
_______________________
I’m sure you haven’t, Macky: you are forgetful as well as foolish.
You left this blog because your inflated sense of self-importance could not stomach being reproved by the founder of this blog.
Why, he has pulled you up on several occasions and, indeed, as recently as a couple of days ago on this very thread!
Have you forgotten the following from Craig:
“Macky
There are people who correctly believe that state power is a terrible thing and politicians are self seeking egotists in the west, but then deludedly believe that state power is a good thing in Russia and there politicians are entirely altruistic and fluffy. My reference to Nemtsov was to make plain I am not intellectually inept in that way.” ?
You’ll notice the reference to intellectual ineptness. 🙂
Macky
there is a world of difference between the “greatest evil in the world” and the “greater evil” as you should know given that you are happy to accuse other of dissembling. You owe Craig an apology for misquoting him.
Resident Dissident
I believe I’m correct in saying that it is Russia under its present leadership that has the highest number of convinced (and active) fascists of any European country, both in absolute numbers and as a percentage of the population?
To state this is not to be anti-Russian – it is merely to recognise a sad fact.
John Spencer-Davis, no apology necessary regarding your comment at 3:44 pm, and thank you for the ray of hope in your comment at 12:06 pm.
You like Excession; the inter-ship-mind communications remind me of some of the banter on these comment threads.
Regarding psychedelics, I think they can help break up entrenched, self-supporting belief systems, but their best effects require preparatory study of new ideas as well. When used by those who have not considered the role of their own mind and senses in perception, their use may result merely in unproductive or counter-productive hallucination and delusion. Various tribal societies make use of psychedelics, but always guided by someone experienced in their use.
Resident Dissident; “there is a world of difference between the “greatest evil in the world” and the “greater evil” as you should know given that you are happy to accuse other of dissembling.”
Which is a piece of dissembling itself; you obviously couldn’t have read through the exchanges in the time you posted, so the context is missing; the Chomsky quote that I quoted & Craig was initially agreeing with, contains the statement that the US has by far the greatest responsibility for crimes committed against other countries, yet Craig later stated that Putin was still the “greater evil”, ie more than the US, ie more than the Country that Chomsky had stated was the country with the greatest responsibility.
Apology? Macky? You’re joking, right? Macky doesn’t get anything wrong; others simply lack the intelligence to appreciate how right she is.
Maybe someone else did it ? There was a lot of dodgy evidence at the inquest.
Litvinenko suspect to ‘throw doubt’ over involvement in killing.
Like Gareth Williams,David Kelly and Stephen Ward suicided by persons unknown.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-32006475
Fred, 3:42 pm, you’d best point out how I can recognise the symptoms of nationalism in myself. Which “brand” of nationalism am I looking for? If I support Tibetan independence from China as well as Scottish independence, am I suffering from nationalism, or two distinct nationalisms?
Habbabkuk; “You left this blog because your inflated sense of self-importance could not stomach being reproved by the founder of this blog.”
Another lying invention of yours yet again; the reason I stopped commenting for a while was as I expressed at the time on Sqounk; “Craig’s comments iro the massacre in Odessa are beyond belief, his obscene mitigating & excusing attempts are so disgusting that I can’t bring myself to address him at present;”
Habbabkuk; “You’ll notice the reference to intellectual ineptness.”
Such a stinging rebuke, that I cry myself to sleep that night ! 😀
I think you will find that it is I that has caused more discomfort for Craig than he has for me, which is why, just like Ba’al now, he refuses to really address my criticism of his povs.
Still waiting his come back on this thread to this;
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2015/03/impunity/#comment-514004
Clark
22/03/2015 6:22 pm
Many thanks.
I have never taken psychedelics (except for one dose of psilocybin that I was too drunk to appreciate), so I can’t give first-hand testimony.
I have however counselled people with substance misuse difficulties for years, and I am not generally in favour of substance misuse as the way to God (Axl Rose). “The point is to build a society that people want to live in, not to escape from…If it’s a choice between facing this miserable, hopeless existence for a few more hours or getting high on drugs, then it’s not an unreasonable choice to get high on drugs. So long as those are the choices available to people, we can expect people to make them.” (Noam Chomsky, interview with David Barsamian, paraphrased).
Kind regards, John
Johnny Void really is a very special person.
https://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/
Visit him as often as you can.
Kind regards,
John
No Macky – I did read the exchange you had with Craig and he did not say what you said he did – and it is intellectual dishonesty to say otherwise.
“Fred, 3:42 pm, you’d best point out how I can recognise the symptoms of nationalism in myself.”
Certainly, when you start thinking maybe 45 is a bigger number than 55 chances are you’ve got it.
@Clark 6:22pm “Regarding psychedelics, I think they can help break up entrenched, self-supporting belief systems.”
Clark you say “I think” From that I undestand that you don`t Know and have not taken any LSD is that correct?
John Goss,
@ 4:40 pm
“One of the things that troubles me is that no doubt many who comment here see the significance of the United Kingdom sending troops and equipment to the Ukraine on taxpayers money without parliamentary debate (dictatorship) yet how many have contacted their MPs for allowing it?”
Iraq invaded with lies.
UK military to Ukraine because Cameron is ” Mr. Obama’s poodle”.
Simple.
CB
Fred, I’m afraid that doesn’t help, and only further indicates that you need to run your self-check procedures. My original comment remains uncorrupted; try reminding yourself of what I actually wrote.
Fred PS; you were performing a slight deception at the time. Seems you retained the wrong version…
Dave, I did acid and MDMA a few times, but mostly I prefer the little mushrooms.
Resident Dissident; “and it is intellectual dishonesty to say otherwise.”
LOL ! Is this the same person who tried to claim that an identical posting of an offensive Charlie Hebdo cartoon was a ‘forgery” simply because the French caption had been (correctly) translated into English ! 😀
Sorry that from memory I didn’t get every exact word & comma quite correct from an exchange a year old, but the meaning however was accurate.
“Fred, I’m afraid that doesn’t help, and only further indicates that you need to run your self-check procedures. My original comment remains uncorrupted; try reminding yourself of what I actually wrote.”
You ask, I answer, you don’t listen.
Typical aint it.
Dave, I wrote “I think” because I can never know others’ experiences, only my own. But it works for me.
Fred (sigh), I never claimed that 55% exceeded 45%. Can YOU remember what I DID claim? Can you remember why you were so cross about it?
Macky:
Actually only the last in a sequence of cartoons was shown; the entire context was absent, without which one couldn’t tell that the cartoon didn’t even depict Mohammed. But it wasn’t a forgery.
Me, 7:03 pm, oops, got the figures back to front; commenting too fast. But so many people get so much muddled in their minds; at least I notice when I get it wrong in words and correct it. Sigh.
John Goss@,
@ 4:40 PM
Said – ” One of the things that troubles me is that no doubt many who comment here see the significance of the United Kingdom sending troops and equipment to the Ukraine on taxpayers money without parliamentary debate (dictatorship) yet how many have contacted their MPs for allowing it?”
Iraq invaded with lies.
Ukraine relates to the fact that Cameron is “Obama’s poodle”
Simple.
CB
“LOL ! Is this the same person who tried to claim that an identical posting of an offensive Charlie Hebdo cartoon was a ‘forgery” simply because the French caption had been (correctly) translated into English ! ”
Which is of course not true – I never argued about the translation – the theft and quoting in a different context was what I was complaining about.
Yet again you demonstrate your nasty habit of taking someone elses words and thoughts and twisting them to you own interpretation so that they can be used against them. You really are quite a nasty person and my guess is that you behave like this in your personal life you will end up with very few friends but you will be quite convinced that no one was quite good enough to deserve your company.