Impunity 1959


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.


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1,959 thoughts on “Impunity

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  • RobG

    Nope, no mention of child sex abuse.

    One day I’ll have to write a paper about GCHQ, and it will be the day when you lot are all put on trial.

  • Old Mark

    Ba’al @09.33am

    A ‘credible synthesis’ from Dr Attila Hoare or a slickly written pro Nato screed from an ex office holder at the Henry Jackson Society ?

    The latter I think, but thanks anyway for posting it; in the comments Dr Attila Hoare is taken to the cleaners by commenter ‘Brumanuensis’ for his very partial remarks concerning the Russia/Georgia conflict of 2008. Atilla Hoare’s rather clunky analogy between the current conflict and events in Croatia in the 90s doesn’t really hold together either, but it’s the sort of guff you’d expect from a former Henry Jacksonite- especially one who is himself half Croatian.

  • Mark Golding

    Correct Kempe a coastal defense system using the now hypersonic P-800 Oniks of Pentagon fame. In fact so good most of these Russian missile systems supplied to Syria were destroyed in an Israeli air strike on Latakia on 5 July 2013 and that was before the seaborne US Tomahawk, fighter jet and drone strikes on 20 or so ‘ISIS’ assets in Aleppo and other Syrian areas, of course without Syrian government approval – sorry not exactly true, the US muggers did give President Assad a few hours notice of the attack pummel.

    Reminds me of the idiom, ‘Once bitten twice shy’ – sorry no links my system is full of negative interference.

  • Resident Dissident

    “especially one who is himself half Croatian.”

    a tad racist if I might say so.

    “@RD: weren’t there Russian forces in Crimea from the beginning because it contained a massive Naval base?”

    Yes – but we are referring to those who occupied Ukrainian govt building and army bases – which was a clear breach of international law. Please stop the old Kremlin technique of creating diversionary noise.

  • RobG

    But still nothing about child sex abuse and murder within the British Establishment.

    It makes you wonder if we live in a kind of Orwellian dystopia, or if what’s presented to you is ‘normal’.

    Whatever. The vermin will be held to account.

  • Resident Dissident

    “To block and disarm 20,000 people, of course you need a certain set of personnel, and not just in terms of quantity, but also quality… So I ordered the Ministry of Defense… to deploy the special forces of the Main Intelligence Directorate [GRU], Marines and paratroopers under the GUISE of reinforcing our military facilities in Crimea,”

    Vlad himself in the propaganda film on the Crimea that Mr Goss is so keen on pushing.

  • Herbie

    “The question is why so many Western European far right parties should be so keen on Russia.”

    Because Russia’s in favour of a multipolar world, as are they. That’s the most common argument.

    That’s why China, India, most of Asia, Africa and south America are supporting Russia as well, against NATO’s expansionist plans.

    Some have argued that they’re Russia’s colour revolution to regime change Western Europe. Haven’t seen that argument prominently, but I’ve come across it.

    Then there’s Putin’s return to conservatism and traditional values. Quite a sensible policy at Russia’s stage of economic development.

    Conservatives are of course big supporters of Putin as well, in Britain, Europe and the US.

  • RobG

    RD, get your links right, because I can’t find anything there about child abuse.

    In the meantime the government agents and propagandists continue to tell us that everything is normal and ok.

    It’s not

    You lot are totally sick and corrupt.

    And you are all going to be put on trial.

  • Trowbridge H. Ford

    Of course, the best example of sabotaging an airliner like the Germanwings one is the downing of that Sukhoi 100 airliner a few years back.

    The Russian manufacturer hoped to cut into Boeing’s and Air Buseses near monopoly in such business, but the Pentagon complex torpedoed its hopes by sabotaging a Sukhoi test flight out of Jakarta.

    The plane had suffered a setback earlier when a test failed because of a breakdown (sabotage) of its pressure, and no sooner did this flight reach its flight plan altitude of 10,000 feet than the air conditioning broke down again, setting off unprecedented chaos throughout the plane.

    It called Jakarta’s ATC to get permission to descended to 6,000 feet so that notice by prospective buyers of the loss of air would be minimized, and then struggled with the flight to get it back on what the flight plan still called for.

    In the process, though, the plane crashed into that volcano in the island’s center.

    Sukhoi was caught between a rock and a hard place, letting the crash be blame on pilot error rather than the sabotage which caused it.

    Sukhoi gave up trying to find the flight data recorder which would have shown the failure of the air conditioning system.

    Looks like the Germanwings crash is a repeat of the Sujhoi one.

  • John Goss

    John Spencer-Davis at 10.29 pm.

    It is the disenfranchised who parliament ought to be concerned about. As to yur thought experiment, John, my main academic area of expertise is the novelist Robert Bage. His fist novel was called “Mount Henneth” (1782) which is about a utopian community which was set up by similarly-minded people at a castle in Wales and financed by a wealthy protagonist. It was written as an alternative to Courtney Melmoth’s “Shenstone Green” (1779) where a commune was set up but because some people wanted more, and thought their superior education and position deserved more the society reverted into very much what society was anyway. By the time Bage wrote his sixth novel “Hermsprong” (1796) he had virtually disowned his first.

    Of course, the Birmingham riots of 1791, had a big influence on his change in philosophy. But Bage realised that there should be education for all regardless of social background, that women should not be treated as second-class citizens, that the dowry system should be abolished, that the poor should have work and a means to feed themselves and their families, that sick people should be treated, that slavery should be abolished and the distribution of wealth should be less iniquitous. Many of these things did not start to come to pass in Bage’s lifetime nor for another 200 years but thanks to the socialist movement, people like Keir Hardie and Robert Tressell, a kind of socialism was introduced which led to the mixed economy we had until Blair gave us two, instead of one, Tory parties.

    It is the people at the top who cause the problems by their greed. Bage’s novels contain many good people who are rich and bless the poor lavishly in some cases. But that is not what the urban and rural poor need. They need to have a big stake in the ownership of the factors of production, and particularly of banking, to prevent year on year increases well in excess of earnings from former nationalised utilities. I am not Karl Marx. But I have read Engels’ “Conditions of the Working Class in 1844” when Toryism and Empire had a heyday and it does not make pretty reading.

    That Toryism is back. The National Curriculum and its successors are designed to drive teachers out of the profession by giving them increasing amounts of extra curricular work. It is a plan aimed at preventing teachers from doing what they are there to do, because an uneducated workforce that doffs its hat to the gaffers at the factory gate “Have you got a job, Sir” is what they like so they can give a few coppers to the poor and starving frome their pouches stuffed with banknotes and look compassionate to their peers. Society deserves better than that old shit. Apologies for going on at length, but I hope it explains where I stand on your question.

    And the corollary to your question?

  • John Goss

    Resident Dissident at 11.17 you’ve got a bloody nerve. I recall you asking me to find out who was in possession of Shirokino at the time of the ceasefire and then I would know who the aggressors were. I did the homework you were too lazy to do yourself and found out it was the Novorossiyans. Ever since then your AZOV forces have been bombarding it and from the pictures I’ve seen today, not RT, they are still shelling it despite there sopposed to be a ceasefire. And you condone this. Is it any wonder I call you a fascist supporter?

  • RobG

    Where’s Habba? Who breathtakingly continues to make excuses for child abuse and murder.

    We’re coming to get you, pal, along with all the other government a-holes on this blog.

    Your time is numbered.

  • Macky

    @Tim, Good to see there’s nothing wrong with your eyesight & comprehension skill !

    The real question is why if you are so concerned about far right extremists, are you fixated only about far fringe far right groups in Russia holding a meeting, like fringe far right groups do in many countries, including in Europe, yet you seem not to be able to express any concern about the Neo-Nazis in actual positions of power in Kiev, and the Neo-Nazi death squads, armed by Kiev, that are terrorizing & committing atrocities in Eastern Ukraine ?

    Herbie provided you with an answer to another aspect of your question, to with I will add that parties like Ukip & Front Nationale in France, do indeed support the Russia position over Ukraine, not only for the sensible reason Herbie mentioned, but also because it is a vote winner against the incumbent US stooge governments of their respective countries; many people can see through the MSM propaganda B/S, and will prefer to vote for those who at least tell the truth about a very serious & potential war situation.

  • Macky

    @Resident Dissident, Here’s a little rationality question for you; As absolutely everybody, including even the most rabid Russophobes, all agreed that even before referendum, the overwhelming majority of the population in the Crimea did not wish to be ruled by the regime in Kiev, and instead preferred to reunite with Russia, so why then is the resultant referendum, in which they exercised their right of self-determination, not the right result, and all achieved with the minimum of bloodshed ?

  • BrianFujisan

    Macky……Clark

    my problem with U2… as i think i Know you both…. nor you Embrace… Give me Cuddle.. Then tell me to…F ?????

  • Resident Dissident

    ” I did the homework you were too lazy to do yourself and found out it was the Novorossiyans.”

    And you were too lazy to read what the OSCE said which I mentioned subsequently – and instead just continued to pump your propaganda as per usual.

    Still waiting your answer to the homeland question and many others.

  • Clark

    BrianFujisan, you’re a good friend and there’s no way I’ll be telling you that! Macky’s welcome to be a friend too, but that’s not up to me.

    The Russian government is not a friend any more than Westminster or Washington. It’s just another government, a control system of the elites, making weapons and raising armies and trying to manipulate the ways people think and feel. Governments are meant to serve, not dominate. Something is very wrong whenever people love that which rules over them and sets them against each other.

  • Clark

    BrianFujisan, we know about the system of power that rules Russia because we know what it tried to do to Craig and what it did to Nadira, and why Craig had to rescue her from it. It’s all in Craig’s book.

    RobG is right to be angry about abuse of children, but he’s only thinking about the UK. But vile abuse of the vulnerable is international. If you’ve read Murder in Samarkand, remember the two girls…

  • BrianFujisan

    Clark… There are so many Posters that want peace….and yor point that you have Met Us,, i Think think that if you are a Spy…. it’s great that after a week.. you can’t figure me oot

  • YouKnowMyName

    @RobG you’ve recently been over-suggesting that GCHQ will be the first against the wall when the revolution comes, to quote Douglas Adams.

    I don’t quite see it like that, and I do have friends who work in Cheltenham, they’re all very decent chaps &/or chapettes.

    I think the workers in Cheltenham do a skilled technical job, OK occasionally committing digital mayhem & creating/supporting false-flags, but the individual workers there are not evil. They are just obeying orders /underpaid/working long hours – shifts – which is very bad for health, and there is always I suppose the risk that some random other Intelligence Community operative might ‘holdall-in-a-bath’ them, again. Perhaps the pay & conditions are good enough to compensate for the hazards, both moral & mentally/bodily? Surely the should rotate to Google after five-years at the front-line?

    I personally know that many of the GCHQ/CESG/HMGCC et al cyberwarriors are profoundly intelligent, moral & decent humans, who just do their job. But who gives GCHQ/HMGCC their orders? This is where more research is needed, not inciting potentially illegal acts.

    The national debate and analysis is happening, in New Zealand, great article here by Dr. Bryce Edwards who is a lecturer in Politics at the University of Otago. He teaches and researches on New Zealand politics, public policy, political parties, elections, and political communication.

    some extracts

    How much longer can the GCSB spying scandal run? Nicky Hager recently told the radio station bFM that “in some respects we’re only just at the beginning of what people are going to find out”. This continued drip-feeding of information about what our spies have really been up to will not bring down the Government or lose National the Northland by-election, but the ongoing revelations might still seriously tarnish New Zealand’s international reputation, as well as erode the public’s faith in its surveillance institutions…

    The potential upshot of these revelations is that New Zealand is revealed as an unethical bully on the international stage…

    The GCSB’s role in the Pacific – and the response – appears particularly problematic in terms of what has been going on in the Solomon Islands. According to Hager and Gallagher, New Zealand has been spying on politicians, civil servants, and even an anti-corruption campaigner…

    What is the GCSB really for?

    The latest revelations have been useful for public clarification of what the spy agencies are actually for. The Government has been arguing that the GCSB exists to protect the country from security threats, but all the recent examples suggest something different. As Hager and Gallagher argue, “Deploying GCSB’s surveillance capabilities to gain the upper hand in the WTO selection is far away from terrorism, the Islamic State and other security issues for which Mr Key has claimed the agency is used”…

    …the question of the GCSB’s role therefore needs serious attention: “This agency has cost about half a billion dollars over the last ten years, which would be fine if we had dire security threats and they were protecting us from them. But that’s not what’s happening. The half a billion dollars funds intelligence operations against Tuvalu, Kiribati, Antarctic research scientists, anti-corruption campaigners in the Solomons and the Trade Minister’s career rivals”…

    …Professor of Strategic Studies, Robert Ayson is now asking: “is that what we want to have an intelligence service for?” – see Benedict Collins’ Spy claims ‘most concerning’. Ayson says that these allegations are “arguably the most concerning spying revelation yet”.

    So is the GCSB being used for “national interests” or “National Party interests”? Andrew Little has responded to the WTO allegations saying that “The GCSB isn’t there to advance the career prospects of politicians” – … Similarly, for Danyl Mclauchlan, the latest story illustrates “How our elites conflate the interest of New Zealand with their own personal and career objectives”.

    This isn’t just the view of anti-Government voices. Fairfax political editor Tracy Watkins says it was “an abuse of the trust” for the National Government to use the GCSB “powers for the purpose of giving a senior Cabinet minister a leg up into a plum international posting. It fails the national security test dismally, and it is a line call as to whether it met the national-interest test”…

    That above is a great analytical, sourced article from unchallenged documents, where’s the UK equivalent debate?. I think the mob who give GCHQ/HMGCC similar orders – for Party Interests, for Elite Interests – need more light shining on them, after all the GCHQ is genetically-fraternally-eternally the GCSB’s Big Brother.

  • Clark

    YouKnowMyName, thanks for that comment.

    Secrecy itself is the problem because deep secrecy precludes accountability.

    Some new type of system is needed, where operational secrecy can be maintained but where objectives and the achievement or failure to meet those objectives is open to scrutiny. I think it can be done, but I know of no initiative for doing it.

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