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.
Clark; “I see three commenters here trying to justify their own prejudices – Macky, RD and Fred.”
I take it that you don’t have a mirror then ?
Can you tell me what my prejudices are please, as I’m not sure that I even know !
Macky
No, it eliminates it, because the figure is shown to be someone other than Mohammed.
Macky, your prejudice is that you and the Kremlin never do anything wrong.
Courtenay Barnett at 7:56 pm. Thank you for bringing a bit of sanity to the blog.
Drugs can be very helpful, the right drugs, in the right doses. But there appears to have been an overprescription judging by the confessions. I am sure John Spencer-Davis does not want to be hearing everyone’s confessions on his day off or he might not have started the debate which detracts from the much more serious issue of what to do about David Cameron being a US poodle. That does not seem to bother most. We’ll just blow our heads with a few helpings of Fly Agaric and the world will be a happy place again! 🙂
On Charlie Hebdo
Thinking a criminal act by Julian Rose.Art David Dees
http://internationaltimes.it/thinking-a-criminal-act/
Late for his own murder. By Heathcote Williams.Pic: Elena Caldera
http://internationaltimes.it/late-for-his-own-murder/
John Goss
22/03/2015 8:36 pm
I wasn’t the one who brought up LSD, John.
Kind regards,
John
Macky, the worst failing of human minds is that they suffer from something like rootkits – thoughts and prejudices that hide themselves from self-awareness by making selective use of memory and the rational functions of mind.
We all suffer from this, but recognising the fact and cultivating appropriate self-doubt helps us admit when we’re wrong and correct our world-model rather than building upon flawed foundations.
Clark; “No, it eliminates it, because the figure is shown to be someone other than Mohammed.”
LOL!! No wonder you & RD agree so much, you two clowns must both think everybody is as stupid as you wish them to be to believe your nonsense !!
The fact that one of the images has the name “Mohammed” is just an amazing innocent coincidence ! 😀
Clark; “Macky, your prejudice is that you and the Kremlin never do anything wrong.”
Goldfish time again ! Or is it you really cannot understand basic English ?
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2015/03/impunity/comment-page-5/#comment-515146
Apologies John Spencer-Davis for getting the wrong supplier. 🙂
No problem. 🙂
“Macky, your prejudice is that you and the Kremlin never do anything wrong.”
________________
hahaha, hole in one, Clarkie! That’s telling da man! 🙂
R.I.P former Aussie Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser.
Worth saying a prayer for, as one who dragged Australian out of the slough of despond into which his predecessor Gough Whitlam, had plunged it with his buffoonish and inept attempts to “govern”.
John Goss, I am not ashamed that I have used psychedelics. The word means “mind revealing”. They have taught me that I have to question every belief I hold, that minds make errors and I may always suffer from misapprehension.
This is why you can choose a set of news reports and believe them, whereas I am always unsure, always checking other sources. You think the world fits into your head whereas I know that my internal model is always a poor approximation that requires improvement.
Macky, your excuse for not criticising Kremlin policy that you repeatedly link to is exactly what I mean by “thoughts and prejudices hid[ing] themselves from self-awareness by making selective use of memory and the rational functions of mind”.
After we were visited by the Secret Police.
Charlie Hebdo Amnesty box.
http://m.herefordtimes.com/news/11807825.Pranksters_erect_spoof_amnesty_box_after_police_question_Presteigne_newsagents_about_Charlie_Hebdo_sales/
I’m fed-up with this GCHQ jolly on here that purports to be genuine comments.
You lot are total vermin, and believe me, you are going to get what’s coming to you.
“I see three commenters here trying to justify their own prejudices”
Of course rational people try to justify their own views – whether they are prejudices or views that they have reached based upon their values and after considering the facts is really something that you can know by exploring their views further – and to say otherwise really is prejudice.
Macky, my apology. The cartoons do depict Mohammed; they are from 2012 after the release of The Innocence of Muslims. The description of the issue including the full page can be found here:
http://gawker.com/what-is-charlie-hebdo-and-why-a-mostly-complete-histo-1677959168
“you are going to get what’s coming to you.”
We are all going to get what’s coming to us – another case of in vino veritas from our Burgundian troll.
Hello RobG, are you claiming that I work at GCHQ?
Resident Dissident calls me a wino pisshead, and Clark wonders if I think he works for GCHQ.
If you have the inclination folks, just read prior posts and make up your own mind.
And still, of course, no utterences about Fukushima, which is the greatest disaster in human history.
Clark
How many Muslims do you believe would have purchased that issue of Charlie Hebdo and been inadvertently offended? Do you think it would have been more or less Moslims than by those such as Macky who seeked to stir up offence by translating the cartoons into English and repeatedly posting the links? The circulation of Charlie Hebdo before the massacres was about 20,000.
@Clark well UK/USA/IL/RF governments have all massively invested in ‘sock-puppet’ (ten virtual personalities per workstation)
and Craig’s excellent blog is a serious digital watering hole where GCHQ/HMGC virtualities will gather data for their needs, seemingly with impunity
and sometimes your activity on Craig’s excellent blog does appear to conform to aspects of a GCHQ driven – destroy/control the message channel – campaign
but you might be real, and I might be the virtual one.
Surely some university somewhere is busy analysing all the metadata of 107.150.20.192 to later publish analysis on the impact of the massed-ranks of hidden puppetry on ‘our democracy’
Wasn’t RIII’s handover a grand show on C4, quite moving?
“And still, of course, no utterences about Fukushima, which is the greatest disaster in human history.”
perhaps because we don’t agree with you. Say something sensible then you might get a sensible response – until then chin chin.
That’s it RD, let’s talk about anything except Fukushima.
What a good little propaganda bot you are.
I’m sure you can look your grandchildren in the eye.
RobG
Talk about Fukushima if you wish – but if you want to start doing so with ridiculous hyperbole then don’t be surprised if you get ridiculed. Where does Fukushima stand in the all time list of disasters in terms of deaths – strangely enough I could not find it on any of these lists
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_and_anthropogenic_disasters_by_death_toll
RobG, RD does not want to talk about Fukushima probably because he knows nothing about it. Or he wants to detract. But tomorrow, if he feels he needs to know, he will know everything about it. 🙂
RD, I expect that few Muslims would ever have seen those cartoons if other Muslims hadn’t publicised them to incite wider offence. However, I find our society carries a lot of islamophobia and prejudice against Muslims, and that the Israel lobby makes much use of supposed anti-Semitism to suppress all and any criticism of Israel, whether legitimate or misguided.
There were also several incidents following the Charlie Hebdo massacre where Muslims were arrested for making political cartoons etc. Our society is clearly has both pro-Jewish and anti-Muslim biases.
What are you Scottish people still doing in that degenerate sty of pedophile ass-kissers?
http://crookedtimber.org/2015/03/13/political-philosophy-now-illegal-in-the-uk/#comments
@YouKnowMyName
22 Mar, 2015 – 9:41 pm
There’s been a massive Establishment campaign against this blog, and of course against Craig in particular.
I take the piss out of these trolls, but the depressing thing is that most people seem to believe that we live in some kind of ‘democracy’. Hence the trolls gain some traction.
Anyone who speaks out against these establishment vermin knows that they will be attacked. It goes with the territory.
I continue to support Craig, because he is well aware of all this stuff, yet is still brave enough to speak out.
Beleive me, that really takes some guts.