The Lord President of Scotland’s judges, Lord Gill, has made a complete fool of himself by leading British judges in a walk-out from the Commonwealth Law Conference. The action is in protest against Julian Assange’s participation by video-link in a panel discussion on surveillance and the role of the security services.
The walk-out happened after Julian’s talk, not before it, which rather gives the impression that what Lord Gill and his fellow judges objected to was the content of Assange’s talk, rather than the fact of it. Assange stated among other points that nationalists were right to believe that MI5 were active against them in the referendum campaign.
The Assange talk proved extremely popular with lawyers and judges from all over the Commonwealth. In fact it had to be shifted to a larger room to accommodate them all. So it seems Lord Gill’s disinterest in the concept of freedom of speech is not widely shared in the Commonwealth.
What Gill and his Scottish and English colleagues could have done – and I presume actually did – was to boycott the Assange panel and simply attend other panels on at the same time. What they have now done is to boycott all the panels happening after the Assange talk is gone, at some of which some of the boycotters were due to be talking or chairing, as an attempt to mess up the conference as some childish kind of spiteful revenge.
The members of the English Supreme Court who took part in this action have demonstrated their extreme prejudice against Assange – who has exercised his right in law to claim political asylum and who has never been charged with anything.
Julian has today told me that he is concerned that their action is also prejudicial to the cases currently before the Swedish Supreme Court and the UN Committee on Arbitrary Detention. Quite why the English and Scottish judges were moved to this peculiar display of prejudice is not immediately clear; I suspect they were pushed. Lord Gill is an interesting example of the self-made lackey. If you always promote the interests of the Establishment, even a man of talent but humble origins can get to the top, provided he is an entirely unscrupulous character.
STOP PRESS
In an effort to make Lord Gill and the judges look less like asses, it is being assiduously put about that they did not know Julian was going to speak before his appearance, and he unexpectedly appeared at the session. That this is a blatant lie is easily proved. Julian’s appearance was at short notice – a week. His name was in the conference programme, and the event was announced in the Scottish Legal press the day before it happened. Everyone at the conference knew Assange was appearing, that is why the room had to be changed for a larger one.
That our judges are not just asses but lying asses ought to be the source of some concern. Where is Lallands Peat Worrier when you need him?
A cousin of mine worked for the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Department of Labor in the U.S. government in Washington D.C. back in the 1980’s. He confessed to me once that a lot of their numbers were just made up. When they didn’t have the numbers on the date that they were due, they thought up numbers that would look plausible to their bosses.
I suspect that it’s much worse now, that the economic statistics are massaged for political reasons just as much as they were in the old Communist regimes.
And there has been a deliberate and highly organised effort to split thousands of full time jobs into two or more zero hour hirings, further giving rise to false falling unemployment statistics. But the FOIs and janners in the Labour Party are in there only for one purpose, and it aint what the meat pie eating mancunian socialist dumbos are there for.
http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Man-guilty-abusing-age-girls/story-11746382-detail/story.html
Now here’s an interesting case . Despite suffering severe dementia a man was found guilty in his absence of abusing under age girls . We have a precedent , but not applied to Lord Janner .
Monteverdi
18/04/2015 12:28 am
I have posted this from the article you linked to.
“Jurors heard the trial in Collingwood’s absence after being told he suffers from severe dementia.
The jury forewoman, giving her verdicts, was required to say she found Collingwood “did the act charged” rather than being “guilty”, due to him not standing trial.
They were told, after the verdict, that he is currently in hospital under a Mental Health Act order, and his future will be decided at a further hearing.”
This suggests to me that the legal proceeding here is a “trial of the facts”, which is what Sir Clive Loader, Police and Crime Commissioner for Leicestershire, is talking about in a link Mary posted, and I discussed, on the previous thread.
I am quite angry, now, that a “trial of the facts” has not been ordered by the DPP. I said that I thought the DPP had reached the right decision. I did not know that an alternative to a jury trial was possible, and now I do, I no longer think that. I can’t see why a trial of the facts could not be possible for Lord Janner. It would give his alleged victims the opportunity to have their testimony heard by a judge and jury.
Kind regards,
John
RobG
“@Habbabkuk (la vita è bella)
17 Apr, 2015 – 8:11 pm
I often attack you..”
______________________
I really hadn’t noticed, Rob. Apologies and I’ll endeavour to pay more attention in future.
But No One Else in The UK – Has Got The Courage and The Recognition…To Do What Nicola Surgeon Has Already Done..and She’s Only Just Left The Starting Blocks
Who would You Choose To Represent The United Kingdom…Catherine Ashton..Look at The Fckin State…and Look at The Rest…???
I want Someone of Fire, Intelligence and Courage Representing My Country..and I am Not Surprised That The Scottish Have Got Nicola Sturgeon Representing Them…
What A Fcking Star
Who Have Us English Got…
FFS
We Have Got To Compete a Bit…
Its Embarrassing
We ain’t got anyone in the same league as Nicola Sturgeon,,and Neither have the Yanks..
She Would EAT Hillary Clinton For Breakfast.
Tony
and spit her out
@RobG – I see you are still having difficulty in posting a load past gatekeeper habba’s clenched buttocks !! That the hasbara hound is keeping watch at this hour, you gotta admit he does earn his monthly stipend.
All those spin doctors, all those words spoken, all those photo ops, all those miles travelled in their ridiculous ‘battle buses’ and they are still completely level in the polls.
http://news.sky.com/election/poll-tracker
I see that Lord Gill was a junior counsel at the FCO in Wilson’s time and later at Home Office.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Gill,_Lord_Gill
RobG 17 Apr, 2015 – 10:26 pm
I was cycling along a path beside a railway line in Romania going for provisions and got a terrible feeling of gloom and doom and tragedy which was inexplicable. When I got back it was on the nesw about the twin towers.
This morning somebody posted a picture of the Godfather looking quizzical and saying something to the effect: “Tell me again! They recovered a passport and bandana. But they never recovered any of the black boxes?”
That is “on the news” not north, east, south, west. Bloody gremlins are almost as bad as the trolls.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/127161425@N07/sets/72157651484252247/
On the feeling that we’re no-longer seeing ‘journalism’ but ‘churnalism’, that the media doesn’t tell our truth, that politicos are lying, that the establishment is hiding things – how does one question these positions of power?
One way is to ask an expert and historian, I’m thinking more Pliny the elder style, than the pervasive Public Relationists all trying to become one of the chosen 650 in Westminster
so Salon.Com, a U.S. Newspaper have interviewed a historian, on the mess that we are in, and he tells an interesting, cogent and worrying tale. Part one is here, http://www.salon.com/topic/stephen_f_cohen/
Part two next week. ( I never knew that Yeltsin actually wasn’t the winner when he was ‘elected’ )
Other U.S. media don’t like this particular historian, but for balance one should always read widely
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2014/07/stephen_cohen_vladimir_putin_s_apologist_the_nation_just_published_the_most.html
In Europe, in the country formerly known as Ukraine, it’s now getting to the stage where people are being suicided/murdered who members of my family have previously met, judged and admired. That’s seriously shocking and does not bode well for the future. That my family should be directly affected by the actions of “The Ministry of Forgetting” is still surprising me, they are 3662 miles away, I suppose it just proves the saying that “it’s a small world”
At least there is some relatively good news in Russia that some of the tiny & fragmented opposition parties are merging, this is a good sign as in all administrations the politicos & establishments do need balancing opposition, except perhaps in Kiev? Is it illegal yet in the UK to write or think or comment about this sad warped ‘history’ that we see developing?
Strangely enough Johhny Goosestep kept quiet through all of this – and even praised Putin while it was happening. The smell of hypocrisy is totally overpowering. Nothing more to add.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_Russia
Mary
“All those spin doctors, all those words spoken, all those photo ops, all those miles travelled in their ridiculous ‘battle buses’ and they are still completely level in the polls.”
__________________
I do so agree, Hilde. All that wasteful and useless campaigning – why bother to have elections when it would be so much better just to have the same lot in power for ever! Provided of course that it’s your lot.
Oh, what a dreary and unself-aware person you are!
YouKnowMyName
“On the feeling that we’re no-longer seeing ‘journalism’ but ‘churnalism’, that the media doesn’t tell our truth, that politicos are lying, that the establishment is hiding things – how does one question these positions of power?
One way is to ask an expert and historian, I’m thinking more Pliny the elder style, than the pervasive Public Relationists all trying to become one of the chosen 650 in Westminster”
__________________
Pliny the elder, huh?
I can’t quite work out whether you are trying to suck up to our transatlantic Greatsman (allegedly) by mentioning him or whether you are trying to annoy said transatlantic Greatsman (still allegedly) by referring to a Roman rather than to an Athenian.
Please clarify.
@11.25am. I am sufficiently aware to have your number.
PS As I have said before, my name is NOT Hilde.
“I do so agree, Hilde. All that wasteful and useless campaigning – why bother to have elections when it would be so much better just to have the same lot in power for ever! Provided of course that it’s your lot.
Oh, what a dreary and unself-aware person you are!”
Makes you wonder what all those people (or is it sheeple, Hilde?) at Peterloo were wasting their time trying to achieve.
Following this;
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/vladimir-putin-named-most-influential-figure-in-the-world-for-2015-by-time-100-readers-poll-10174956.html
Here’s something else that will stick in throats of the resident Russophobes;
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article41577.htm
Some fence sitting from Milord Macdonald on Radio 4 Today, attempting to defuse the situation.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05qv959
1hr 10mins in
0810
Why was Greville Janner not prosecuted over allegations of child abuse, and is it right that he should face no trial now? His family say he’s is a man of great integrity and high repute with a long and unblemished record of public service. He is entirely innocent of any wrongdoing. But the Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders, has told nine alleged victims of the 86-year-old politician that a new police investigation had gathered enough evidence to charge him with 22 offences – but because he has Alzheimer’s the DPP has decided no trial is possible. That decision has been bitterly criticised, not least by the police in Leicester, who’ve been in charge of the investigation. The DPP also admitted that there were opportunities to prosecute Lord Janner in the past but those opportunities had been missed. One of the them was in 2007 when the Crown Prosecution Service were contacted by the Leicester police but took no action indeed the file was not passed from Leicester to the CPS in London. Lord McDonald – who as Ken McDonald, was the Director of Public Prosecutions at the time.
(The BBC spell Macdonald incorrectly)
You can leave it out too R2D2. I am not in the mood for your nonsense.
@John Goss
I do appreciate your many postings to get to the bottom with the unfair treatment of Assange by Swedish authorities and media. But it is depressing to see your posts on Ukraine. Russia took Crimea against all international law. The Crimean tartars boycotted the referendum which took place after de facto military take over. Imperial behaviour, wasn’t it?
What would you say if Germany wanted the Kalingrad region back with the argument that it had been German for centuries? I hope you would fight it. But you don’t care about the annexation of Crimea. Where are your princxiples?
Axel, apologies, I missed the comment above. I agree that the Tatars have rights but they are only a very small community within Crimea. The referendum was overwhelmingly in favour of becoming part of Russia, and anyway Russia has a naval base there which it needs to defend. I’m sorry you see things differently. I also believe in governments being elected, not seizing power in a coup. I cannot defend this dictatorship any more than I could the ones in Europe in the thirties, or Chile under Pinochet. Sorry. Fascists do not do it for me.
Axel, in the documentary in which Putin defends his position over Crimea (well worth watching) he says that Russian troops in Crimea were entitled to be there, and in fact Russia was entitled to have more troops there than there were, so no I do not think it was imperialism. What I think is imperialism is what the US does, creating wars all over the world. I seek to defend justice.
The fascism has extended to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra prohibiting Valentina Lisitsa from appearing because of her defence of her fellow Ukrainians who have been bombed by the AZOV and other Kiev forces.
https://www.facebook.com/ValentinaLisitsa/photos/a.229765710457954.36991.229319540502571/623464897754698/?type=1&theater
“In Sweden consensual sex appears to go under the name ‘rape’ of which there are several categories if my understanding is correct.”
Yet another John Goss moment for the collectors of such junk. I dare him to repeat those words at the next Left Unity meeting he infiltrates.
Or perhaps he could post them on one of their comment forums?
“I agree that the Tatars have rights but they are only a very small community within Crimea.”
So that makes everything ok then – how small is very small – what about their leader being excluded and their subsequent silencing within Crimea. Real ends justify the means stuff I’m afraid.
Given that Mr Goss is worried about cultural boycotts perhaps he might wish to comment on these cases of censorship by the “decent” Mr Putin
http://www.interpretermag.com/ten-films-moscow-wont-let-russians-see-and-why-russians-will-as-a-result/
John: “I agree that the Tatars have rights but they are only a very small community within Crimea.”
About 12% presently. This is the result of ethnic cleansing. In 1944, May 17-18, a quarter of a millinon Crimean Tartars were forced out of Crimea by force by Soviet authorities. Many of them died on the way to Central Asia. They were accused of being fascists by Soviet authorities, an abuse of the struggle against fascism, which comes easy, unfortunately, from Soviet and Russian authorities ever since.
The annexation of Crimea will poison European relations for decades to come, I fear.