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.
I hope you don’t mind me posting my latest article. When my country is threatened by the actions of a madman (acting without parliamentary consent) I consider it my duty to warn my fellow countryfolk of the dangers this rash decision involves. Cameron is gambling with our lives to try and get himself re-elected. Tell him where to go. Please share. Thanks. I know you all love me, even the dissenters.
http://newsjunkiepost.com/2015/03/26/pawn-vs-king-camerons-dangerous-chess-game-against-putin/
Afternoon team, and shalom!
Following from Mary’s (and others’) advice to boycott Israel, I decided to book Israel as my spring holiday destination for this year and have just returned from a highly enjoyable fortnight there.
One should take the time to actually visit a country before one forms any kind of opinion of it, especially one as set in stone as Mary’s. A poplular conception I immediately discounted was that of Israel as ‘Apartheid state’. Nothing could be further from the truth – I saw Muslims going about their lives no differently to how they would here or elsewhere. There were Muslims staying at all the hotels I visited, using the public transport system and enjoying evening entertainment in the shopping malls and promenades in exactly the same way as their Jewish counterparts.
Also evident was the very large number of Sudanese refugees who have been granted asylum in Israel, which rather gives the lie to the notion of Israel as racist state. General opinion seems to be that given the history of the Jews, Israel can hardly deny asylum to refugees from a war-torn country where they might otherwise face genocide, and so there they are, with considerably more rights, welfare and quality of life than they would receive in any of the countries they studiously avoided in order to get to Israel.
Considering Mary’s earlier comment, it’s a funny sort of Genocide that has the Palestinian population rising faster than the Jewish population. Indeed it was alarm caused by some last-minute fear-mongering that got Netanyahu re-elected despite the polls predicting his imminent defeat. You’ll hear many different opinions on ‘Bibi’ (most of them negative), but perhaps the only thing that Israelis can agree on is that Israel must survive as a safe home for the Jews. That is Zionism. Past that, you will encounter every different type of political opinion, and none. And believe it or not, all the Jews I spoke with wanted a peaceful solution with the Palestinians. Most laughed at the orthodox nutters whom they call ‘penguins’ and view as little different to rabid Islamic fanatics, and consider their dreams of a ‘greater Israel’ to be borderline insane. Sadly, to form a government in Israel you have to go into some sort of coalition with these people.
When I saw the Israeli tourist board slogan, “Come and see”, I assumed it to be typically meaningless industry jargon, but there is actually some truth to it. You do have to go to Israel to get past the mountains of anti-Israel propaganda on the internet; talk to Israelis, Jewish and Muslims, find out their different opinions and concerns for yourself, and I guarantee that all but the most hardline anti-Israel obsessive will come away enlightened at least to the complexity of the situation in that country rather than viewing as the very embodiment of evil we are accustomed to on this site.
Hasbara calling! Hasbara calling!
Little Hamza’s white phosphorus burns are not real.
Palestinian children do not get woken and turned out of their beds by the IDF.
‘It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn’t happening. It didn’t matter. It was of no interest.’
HAROLD PINTER NOBEL PEACE PRIZE ACCEPTANCE SPEECH 1958
Returning to the theme of impunity….
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/secret-terror-trial-ends-in-farce-as-student-is-cleared-of-targeting-blair-10136455.html
This is seriously weird. Normally the CPS has a clear idea, if nothing else whatever, of what it wants to accuse the accused of. And normally pleading an intention to rob and deal drugs would not be accepted as a total get-out-of-jail-free card. Still, that’s the “Justice” and “Security” Act 2013 for ya.
Good to see you at last have paid employment, Anon. I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more of you now you’re on the payroll.
“Hasbara calling!”
“On the payroll”
________________________
Keep ’em coming guys.
Re. epilepsy, I know, Nevermind. Added to that, when my sainted grandmother got her petit mal fits, she went out like a light – no time to lock Granddad out and put her armchair into a dive….
something has clearly gone wrong in the psychological assessment of this co-pilot.
Looks like it.
Tendentious statement 1:
Most laughed at the orthodox nutters whom they call ‘penguins’ and view as little different to rabid Islamic fanatics, and consider their dreams of a ‘greater Israel’ to be borderline insane. Sadly, to form a government in Israel you have to go into some sort of coalition with these people.
But most don’t laugh at Netanyahu, do they? And he’s not the haredi they’re laughing at. (who are somewhat marginalised in any case) They’re not laughing at his announcement that there would not be any kind of a Palestinian state, before the election. They’re cheering it to the rafters.
The SNP’s Stuart Hosie,in an interview on the Daily Politics Show,and on the screen at the same time as Mr Hosie is speaking,are the words “SNP THREAT.”
http://munguinsrepublic.blogspot.co.uk
A remarkable if not typical act from the biased and Westminster oriented BBC.
What about the Tory threat,or Labour threat
Ignoring my article won’t make it go away guys.
Ba’al Zevul, you sound just like CNN”s Ricard Quest who has said that it was absolutely not premature to declare the plane’s co-pilot a mass murderer!
So much for any criminal justice system.
“Little Hamza’s white phosphorus burns are not real.”
I’m sure Little Hamza’s burns are real, Mary, but so is the grief of the family of those Israeli tourists slaughtered on the Egyptian border when their bus was attacked by Islamist fanatics. You see, you read a lot of stuff on the internet that confirms what you want to know. I’m much more interested in what motivates you and I’ve no doubt it is a deep dislike of the Jews. Perhaps it passes you by that for all your gushing away with your crocodile tears about poor little this and that, the innocents, the little tiny broken bodies, in a world torn with conflict you know the name of every Palestinian child victim, but you apparently couldn’t give a damn for any of the thousands of others who die in places you have no interest in because there is no currency to be gained for your bitter and twisted view of the world, likely fuelled and realised by your own failures in life. I mean it’s not normal, Mary, what you do on here, all day and all night, and you expect me to believe it’s little Hamza you care about? Pass the sick bucket.
Poor Anon, he didn’t quite get the picture on his spring holiday to the Zionist entity. Israel is so desperate for visitors that the regime actually forces harmless civilians to spend time there when they don’t want to. Thousands of travellers to Palestine are forcibly diverted into the rogue state for routine humiliation and deliberate delays. To achieve this, Israel seized a Palestinian airport, called it Ben Gurion and turned it into an international gateway to the Zionist entity. Its real name is Lydda airport and it was stolen in a terror raid. Lydda was designated to remain Palestinian in the 1947 UN Partition. In July 1948 Israeli terrorist troops seized Lydda, shot up the town and drove out the population as part of their ethnic cleansing programme. In the process they massacred 426 men, women, and children. 176 of them were slaughtered in the town’s main mosque.
Those who survived were forced to walk into exile in the scalding July heat leaving a trail of bodies — men, women and children — along the way. Israeli troops carried away 1,800 truck loads of loot. Jewish immigrants then flooded in and Lydda was given a Hebrew name, Lod.
And what happened to Gaza’s airport? The Oslo II Agreement of 1995 provided for one to be constructed. The Yasser Arafat International airport was built with funding from Japan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Germany and Morocco, and cost $86 million. Arafat and US President Clinton attended the opening in 1998. Owned and operated by the Palestinian Authority it was capable of handling 700,000 passengers a year.
In December 2001 Israel destroyed the radar station and control tower, and cut the runway.
The only usable airstrip in Gaza today is a small airfield at Gush Katif, which is only suitable for short take-off and landing aircraft. The Israeli air blockade prevents it being used.
And all because jealous Israel is so frantic to corner Holy Land tourism………
Let’s face it, pilots are always responsible for these man-made disasters, except when they can be somehow connected to some political fall guy, like Putin in the MH17 case.
The pilots of MH370 diverted somewhere in the Indian Ocean, the pilots of Asiana 214 aka Ho Lee Fuk, We Too low, etc. didn’t know how to fly, the pilots for AirAsia 8501 aimed for the stars but crashed in the Java Sea, and now the co-pilot of the germanwings plane has deliberately crashed into the Southern Alps!
Komodo
“They’re cheering it to the rafters.”
More grudgingly than that in my experience as Netanyahu is widely perceived to be causing more harm than good but perhaps I was hanging out with the wrong types. What you can guarantee, however, is that the extermination of Israel would be cheered to the rafters in most Muslim countries.
I was shocked, shocked I tell you that pilots are not screened psychologically every year. There are growing proscriptions for me ever flying again. And don’t give me no gas about statistics.
“however, is that the extermination of Israel would be cheered to the rafters in most Muslim countries.”
utterly made up conjecture, discriminatory stuff even, Hindu’s, Greek Orthodox and Christians are equally know to have done some cheering in the past, what utter twaddle.
Noisy Tappet:
Obvious fanatic of the hard-left student union variety who can barely bring himself to use the word ‘Israel’ so opts instead for ‘Zionist entity’. Sure sign.
Detailed if warped understanding of early Israeli history suggests many hours on the internet accumulating material to be used online against Israel. Probably obsessive.
Complete disinterest in present day Islamic terrorism the world over. Definite obsessive.
Jealous, greedy Jew routine. Tick.
It’s all there.
” General opinion seems to be that given the history of the Jews, Israel can hardly deny asylum to refugees from a war-torn country where they might otherwise face genocide, and so there they are, with considerably more rights, welfare and quality of life than they would receive in any of the countries they studiously avoided in order to get to Israel. ”
But what of the Palestinian refugees? Those forced to flee when Israel was committing genocide? Where are they now? Are those they stole the land off to build Israel welcome there or are they still living in squalor in refugee camps in Jordan?
“…believes Zaharie Ahmad Shah planned mass murder – locking his co-pilot out of the cockpit, depressurising the cabin and shutting down all communication links before turning the plane around…” [MH370]
“…Andreas Lubitz…[mutatis mutandum]”
Dead men can’t tell tales. Dreadful the way they can pick and choose anyone among the dead, to fit their narrative. Of course, dreadfuller that they are willing in the first place to accept “collateral” in pursuit of their sea trials, but this selective besmirching of likely culprits adds salt to the wounds.
@John Goss: Whilst I am in no way impressed by David Cameron, and was disgusted at the appointment of Coulson with only low-level vetting, I think there is a flaw in your argument here. Cameron said earlier this week that he wouldn’t be going on and on the way Thatcher and Blair did, but would resign before the end of the next Parliament. Whilst his statement shows arrogance in assuming that he would be PM a second time, let along a third, it does suggest that he will soon be looking to other things outside British politics.
Falklands? Nothing will happen there this side of the election, unless Britain attacks Argentina, so increased British hardware there wouldn’t benefit him.
Still, maybe he’s a liar. Wouldn’t be the first time for a politician…
UK Citizen Won Law Case That BBC Had Advance Knowledge of 9/11.
“the pilots of Asiana 214 aka ‘Ho Lee Fuk’, ‘We Too low’, etc. didn’t know how to fly”
We can do without your racism, Trowbridge, thank you very much.
Thanks for the comment Peacewisher. However can it be a flawed argument when our prime minister has acted single-handedly in supporting the fascist regime in Kiev with arms and personnel.
I would have thought you would have been more for peace than provocation.
Isn’t my racism, Dreolin. It’s what the NTSB called them officially shortly after it happened.
Pilot Lee who was making his first landing at SFO, and saved a major disaster by starting up the engines at the last moment, so the plane would not flip over, and burn upon impact
He is aka known by it as Ho Lee Fuk.
All its wild claims helped in the cover up.
I can do very well without your false claims, probably lies.
What really bothers me about the intelligent readers of, and contributors to, this blog is that nobody has due concern that on the 16 March there were Russian submarines sitting around the coast of the UK because it was the deadline for Poroshenko to give a degree of autonomy to the East Ukrainians of Novorossiya. It is speculation but my guess is that because, almost out of thin air, Poroshenko produced a draft document which he presented to parliament on the Tuesday. If the agreement is dishonoured I am almost certain that the secret headquarters in London and Nato headquarters in Brussels will be attacked. Am I the only one concerned for our safety?
“It is speculation but my guess is that because, almost out of thin air, Poroshenko produced a draft document which he presented to parliament on the Tuesday,” should have add that any action by the Russians was averted.”
Alluring Lysias while thinking about the data parameter labeled “FLT DECK DOOR”,
Could Plane Cockpits Be Too Secure? – Popular Mechanics:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/a10270/in-light-of-mh370-evidence-could-plane-cockpits-be-too-secure-16611747/
Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the families and friends of the victims.
If that’s all that went wrong with MH370, why would they keep it secret, instead of revealing the truth and fixing the problem?
Wonder which member of the troll brigade writes in as Anon in support of Israhell? Must be one of the old vintage to know that Ba’al was Komodo in a previous existence. 🙂