Pull Da Trigga

Judge Ian Trigger (left) must think of himself as something of an orator. Some of his recent 'summing-ups' could have been lifted directly from a Dickens novel, "we are living in a society which is bedevilled by wild, feral youths ...it is time for parents to resume control over their offspring whom they have spawned."

Yesterday at Liverpool Crown Court, he sentenced Lucien McClearly to two years imprisonment for various drug offences and took the opportunity to enlighten the wider world on his views on immigration, benefit payments and economics. His Honour may have had some justification in attacking McClearly's original plea for asylum, as he derives from Jamaica. But Trigger went beyond reasonableness then sanity when he blamed McClearly and his ilk for doubling of the national debt.

"People like you, and there are literally hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people like you, come to these shores to avail themselves of the generous welfare benefits that exist here.
In the past ten years the national debt of this country has risen to extraordinary heights, largely because central Government has wasted billions of pounds. Much of that has been wasted on welfare payments. For every £1 that the decent citizen, who is hard-working, pays in taxes, nearly 10 per cent goes on servicing that national debt. That is twice the amount it was in 1997 when this Government came to power."

From 1997 to 2007 the proportion of welfare payments to national debt roughly halved, mostly because of effective job creation which saw unemployment fall below one million for the first time since Ted Heath was PM. Judge Trigger may be correct in his observations about the rise in national debt but it is more attributable to a deep recession, the nationalisation of Northern Rock, as well the many billions poured into RBS and Lloyds than a few food vouchers for the poor.

It is entirely possible Trigger, by his inflammatory and plainly idiotic remarks, may have drawn enough attention to be considered for promotion to the Law Lords under a Conservative administration. If he's not successful in that venture he could easily be the new pin-up columnist for the right. His comments leave veteran headbangers Simon Heffer, Melanie Philips and Richard Littlejohn trailing in his wake.

Some Good Men

It may have taken Harry Patch 80-odd years before getting his feelings about the trenches of WWI off his chest but his simple message of its horror could not have been more clearly expressed. "If any man tells you he went in to the front-line and wasn't scared, then he's a liar." Harry, who died yesterday, was also scathing of the poor treatment of his comrades being shot at for "19d a day".

This ignoble tradition of treating our troops with disdain and, at times, contempt is far from gone. It is an unavoidable fact that in combat, life and limb have a price tag, certainly when it comes to compensation. The MOD has been hit with the worst publicity in its mean-spirited attempts to cut the payouts for amputees and brain-damaged casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Senior MOD officials and Ministers are driving forward an appeal to the High Court this week to get any reasonable settlements substantially reduced. By their actions they continue to punch the bruise on our national pride. One assumes their motives are purely monetary and it appears the moral dimension plays little part in their calculations.

One of the test cases centres on Cpl Antony Duncan who was shot in the thigh on patrol in Iraq in 2005. The MOD offered £9K eventhough the wound required 11 operations and left Duncan in "crippling pain". The appeal tribunal recognised the inadequacy of the first offer and raised it to £46K. The MOD had argued they were only liable for the initial injury and not the subsequent complications which the judges suitably dismissed as "absurd". This barely adequate amount which is still deemed "excessive" by Bob Ainsworth and other graceless Ministers.

When injured combat troops are first acknowledged as eligible for a payout, they are simultaneously warned assessments of their injuries may be "undertaken covertly under surveillance." Nearly 250 service personnel have suffered this indignity, under powers meant for counter-terrorism.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/defence/5854169/MoD-uses-counter-terrorism-powers-to-spy-on-wounded-soldiers.html

In its defence, the MoD spokesman said the Ministry,"like the insurance industry, is at risk of fraudulent claims. " At least we are clear now they see the arrangement with its troops as a predominantly commercial one. The shameless absence of the duty of care we expect our troops to receive, is something Harry Patch would also have recognised.

Blue Print for Dictatorship

Lord (Digby) Jones of Birmingham was always a poor choice for a Minister. But Gordon Brown is often vulnerable to the appeal of high-profile business leaders as his recent daliances with Alan Sugar have shown.

No.10 was forced to take sides with the Civil Service when Jones casually called for 50% of public servants to be sacked. Here he confused 'no-nonsense' with utter nonsense. Having found the pace of public administration with its pesky checks and balances too stultifying, Jones has now turned his ire on the Ministerial structure.

Writing for today's Daily Mail, he argued our elected Cabinet needed filling instead with placemen business leaders, like they do in the US (they don't). Digby's suggestion would place vast power at the hand of the Executive despite the fact that we have a Parliamentary democracy here, voting for party not President.

He may forget more about business in a day than I will ever know in a lifetime but Jones shows a manifest ignorance of politics and political history. Of course his plan would simplify the structure of Government by handing immense power to the PM and at a stroke destroy the principle of representative democracy.

But voting and elections seem a bit of a pointless exercise to business leaders like Jones and reminds them of those ghastly AGMs when the little shareholders raise their pain-in-the-arse resolutions.

Bernie Ecclestone has a similar if slightly more perverse view of Government and history which he vented to the Times earlier this month. By lowering the measure of good Government to an elementary test of "getting things done" it is quite logical to be admiring of Adolf Hitler, as Ecclestone is. After being roundly condemned by the nearly the entire world he qualified his points by saying he only meant the building of the autobahns. Naturally the annihilation of workers' rights in 1930s Germany in preparation for murderous persecution was a mere detail to our Bernie.

Next week's Constitutional Reform Bill contains a clause allowing life peers to resign from House of Lords. As Digby Jones holds Parliament in such contempt it would be fitting if he were at the front of that predictably short queue.

Journos v Hacks

It's been one of the busiest weeks ever for media lawyers. Several hundred public figures have been seeking counsel from their silks, following the Guardian's story alleging systematic phone-tapping of celebs, MPs and anyone deemed fair game by the NOTW.

The story, first published on Wednesday is huge, and could lead to millions paid out in damages but if anything the story diminished as the hours and days passed. Some titles, not even in the News International stable, such as the Telegraph, did not even cover it when it broke. It cannot be solely journalistic rivalry which prompted this voluntary blackout.

It was a very strange news cycle indeed; BBC One O'clock news on Friday reported former editor at the Sun, Rebekah Wade, had been tapped by rival colleagues at Wapping HQ. What was an obvious 'front-pager' simply died and was never repeated.

One can only deduce there are many injunctions flying about and many a judge being woken in the wee hours by sweating editors. Although NI has denied the allegations there have been no writs issued or even threatened for what is a highly defamatory list of charges.

Murdoch was helped no end by PC Knacker, John Yeats who declared in no time there was no new evidence so no prosecution would ensue. Yeats confined the scope of his comments to the already prosecuted Clive Goodman and his PI accomplice Glen Mulcaire. The Guardian's accusations draw in 27 other NOTW hacks and potentially thousands of bugging incidents.

The Times is now able to present this facade as the case in point, when it isn't. They even got former Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman to draft a preposterous article stating the investigation had been thorough and any further inquiry by Parliamentary committees would risk, "muddying the waters."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6685166.ece

If a tenth of what is alleged proves to be true then Tory Comms Head Andy Coulson (above) is doomed and Cameron will be hit by some of the shrapnel after lending Coulson a defiant almost unconditional defence.

Whatever the outcome, we are at least clear this is ultimately a battle between traditional news journalism and infotainment stories perpetrated by tabloid hacks. It is a cultural war which the tabloids won some years ago led by their C-in-C Kelvin McKenzie. The demise of the Mirror and Express as campaigning papers is the perfect example. But just for now the liberal intellectuals have the whip hand.

The Truth is an Imposter

The fashion for 70's retro may have faded somewhat but the Met seemed determined to do their bit to keep that decade alive. Some officers must get misty-eyed when they reminisce about the good ol' Sus laws, SPG, fit-ups and gratuitous brutality.

The death of newspaper seller, Ian Tomlinson during the G20 protests showed the 'modern' Met at their worst: defensive, obstructive, mendacious. The camera technology which they have used so successfully to intimidate legitimate protesters was used against them and their slanted version of events of this pointless death exposed. Yesterday's report by pressure group INQUEST revealed an even more staggering example of the Met's duplicity.

It is alleged (and not yet denied) a senior officer, directly involved in the case, suggested to the family that the copper who shoved Ian Tomlinson to the deck may not have been a police officer at all - perhaps he was but a member of the public who had found a uniform and carried out the fatal assault. It's not hard to picture the faces of incredulity following this proposterous assertion. Small wonder the report says, rather modestly, the police have, "failed to instil confidence in the family."

The NZ teacher and activist, Blair Peach was beaten to death by police in April 1979 following a clash between the National Front and the Anti-Nazi League. Astonishingly, the Met tried the same excuse at that time and suggested a group could have simply procured the correct uniforms and then carried out a vicious attack.

This is the mode of legal defence more commonly associated with lunatic regimes such as Ceaucescu, Mugabe or Pinochet. The people of London deserve better from their police force but there seems to be an ever-worsening standard of leadership among the most senior officers and so giving cover to the most disreputable elements at junior levels.

Head Full of Straw

Jack's Straw's personal decision to deny parole to the decrepit old lag, Ronnie Biggs is a spiteful and inhuman act of a remote Minister. Biggs is a crook who is not faking his infirmity; Simon Hattenstone of the Guardian detailed his pitiful condition which he witnessed in 2003, describing how he was, "bent double and dribbled, fed liquid food through a tube inserted in his stomach." It is an idiotic waste of tax revenue and public concern to spend £2,000 a day perpetuating this obscene incarcaration.

To Straw's credit, he set out clearly his thinking but simultaneously portrayed himself as some Victorian judge by raising the correct moral outlook above the right to a dignified death. In his reasoning, such as it is, he cited Biggs's, "propensity to break trust," and damned him for not undertaking "risk-related work." Work of any kind would come hard to a cripple who has been unable to speak for several years.

Straw defied the advice of the Parole Board; one of several Ministers to reject the wisdom of their own experts. "The legal system deserves more respect," he opined, clearly Straw feels deference to the law excludes any degree of mercy here. The public and media don't have much of a soft spot for Ronnie Biggs but Straw carries no popular support nor respect in continuing the "cruel and unusual," punishment of a dying man.

Less than Zero

When the PM was asked today, about the projected rate of growth in future years he replied, totally deadpan, it would, "continue to rise at 0%." Blair would have made a joke at this point, perhaps at his own expense.

Unsuprisingly, there was not the remotest flicker of humour from this PM, at this seemingly absurd statement because in Brownworld, a '0% rise' actually means something and a serious thing at that. He carried on relentlessly, amid the general hilarity, like an alien, mildly annoyed by such illogical and infantile human behaviour.

We should have seen all this coming but Labour supporters in the main were bedazzled by having two strong, young leaders in Blair and Brown, especially when the Tories were led by a succession of duffers and plodders.

When Alistair Campbell told Andrew Rawnsley (then denied it) that Brown was 'psychologically flawed,' it was deemed the ultimate spin of the Blair machine rather than a frank admission of the hidden truth.

One early exception to the Brown fan club was Chris Mullin (above) whose recently published diaries expose raw fear amongst senior colleagues of a Brown premiership. Mullin's first dig, in 2000, follows one of Brown's radio interviews; his style, "involving constant, wooden repitition of the same on-message phrases, sends out bad vibes".

He keeps returning to Brown the man, calling him, "obsessive, doesn't listen and has no hinterland." Mullin is not alone in holding such deep concerns: Clare Short, CM's boss at DFID said, "Brown's a meglomaniac....we'd be in deep trouble if Gordon's court took over Downing Street." Another contributor, I am guessing was Alan Milburn, said, "Gordon is obsessive (again), paranoid, secretive and lacking in personal skills."

Yesterday's launch of a dozen initiatives, all uncosted, shows Brown's Government for what it is: half-hearted and full of wishful thinking. The difference between the time when Mullin was penning the diary and now, is the whole Cabinet is fully familair with Brown's manifold personal deficiencies. They must all know the game's up, but for now are content to continue this perverse melodrama.

After his Commons disaster, Brown felt it necessary to defend his 'honesty' with BBC's Nick Robinson. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8129449.stm.

Here you see his total rigidity in sticking to his brief and not answering questtions as they arise. As he starts to look shiftily out of the window I was suddenly reminded of the trickiest politician of them all: Richard Nixon.