Insults of the Season to You

And another immigration related matter. Several of my previous blog entries have suggested the managers and directors of the UK Border Agency live in a parallel universe or at the very least chose to be divorced from humanity.

This week we have conclusive truth, if it were still needed. The UKBA Comms Department have drawn up a Christmas card so devoid of seasonal cheer it could have been designed by King Herod himself. The card pictures the traditional three-tiered Christmas tree shape but is cleverly made up of the Agency’s dismal ‘goals and values’. Emblazoned across this reassuring image are the words “tougher enforcement regimes”, “finger-printing visa applicants” and “deporting a record number”. Obviously no-one in the chain of command which allowed this festive obscenity to be produced has enough humanity left to realise what a PR disaster the card is.

Follow this link to experience the full jaw-dropping horror of it.
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_I7rSe6rzIXw/SyN1f1uxLXI/AAAAAAAADfk/jm6RSxA-PRQ/s1600-h/ukbroderagencychristmascard%5B6%5D.jpg

It doesn't end there. About 2,000 children are incarcerated at Yarl’s Wood and other detention centres every year. Two American priests who attempted to distribute presents to the children were confronted by humourless security officers from Serco who immediately called the plod. It would be hard to find a better example of the arrogance of corporate overpowering human frailty than the contemptuous manner these good men were dealt with.

Still Racist After all These Years

Some senior elements of the Met police have worked hard in recent years to portray their organisation as free of institutionalised racism. But there are hundreds of beat officers and desk sergeants able to destroy this façade at a stroke by their crass and negligent behaviour.

Cynthia Boakye, 43, shared a house in South London with a man who had failed to appear in court on immigration charges. Although unconnected with the case, Cynthia herself was arrested last Thursday morning. Police officers chose not to question Mrs Boakye under caution at her home address. Despite being sole carer for her 18-month old daughter, Audrey (pictured), she was dragged off to Walworth Road nick.

Once at the cop shop, Sergeant Thick realised the questioning could hardly continue while the little one was crying. So cursory efforts were made to locate a relative to take care of the infant. A little while later, a woman also from West African descent, arrived and the child was handed over. No ID check was requested and no officer thought fit to check with Mrs Boakye.

It turned out this woman had no connection to the family and must have overheard an officer loudly arranging the child’s welfare. Three days later Audrey was found in Harlesden, north London.

The child’s grandmother Agatha Owsuah’s angry response was omitted from most press reports. She only spoke the obvious when she said, "All the time in this country they check your identity. They ask for my ID when I take money from the bank, they ask for ID before you can get a job. They should have asked for ID before handing over a human being to someone."

But the police’s statement offered no hint of regret let alone apology to this disgraceful dereliction of the basic duties of safeguarding. One of their spokespeople said there would be a review and only offered this lethargic assurance, "to ensure that any lessons are learned". Yes, certainly one lesson would be to treat people whatever their background with some respect.

In an attempt to successfully sour community relations further, at least five members of Mrs Boakye’s family were arrested on suspicion of involvement. All were bailed, unsurprisingly. Similar high-handed, prejudicial treatment of the black community led to riots in London, Bristol and Liverpool in the 1980s. Don’t be surprised to these battle lines drawn again some time soon.

Brutality Licensed

The Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Grayling, is an intelligent man and usually pretty adept politically. Yet, he briefed the Daily Mail yesterday suggesting, under Tory rule, homeowners tackling burglars should escape conviction unless they use 'grossly disproportionate' force.

His remarks were obviously forced upon him by Andy Coulson, head of Comms at Conservative HQ in an attempt to grab the vigilante vote. He denied, like a good little politician, his comments were not meant to coincide with the jailing of businessman Munir Hussain for beating an intruder into a pulp.

There is no doubt the burglar in this case, Walid Salem, was due a bit of a spanking after he had tied up Hussain’s family and threatened them with a knife. The law, which was reviewed again last year, allows for that. But the judge in this case was quite right to jail Hussain and his brother Tokeer for continuing an almost murderous assault on the dismal Salem with a cricket bat and an iron bar.

The press have slanted the coverage of this case massively to the extent that Hussain 'the innocent', is the only one jailed while the burglar walks free. What better example could there be of the inverted values of 21st Century Britain of human rights, political correctness and healthy and safety lunacy?

The reason Salem could not be sentenced to a long stretch was because his injuries left him so brain-damaged there was no point. His Honour, Judge Reddihough, put it succinctly, "It is somewhat ironic that by reason of the head injuries inflicted upon him he was unfit to plead and could not be sentenced to the very long period of imprisonment which would otherwise have been imposed upon him."

The Daily Mail has opened an on-line poll on whether it was acceptable for home owners to use self-defence against intruders. No doubt the colossal majority in favour will be held as conclusive proof of how out of touch the politicians and judges are with the man in the street. Self-defence is well…self-defence and does not equate to beating an unconscious man round the head with sporting equipment until he can never tie his shoes again.

Each article attacking the sentences all conveniently omitted mention of the jury confirming the Hussains’ guilt. Most of the rabid columnists held up that other brutal con, Tony Martin, as a hero of the people. One wonders why even the most populist programme makers have not thought to invite Mr Martin to divulge his views on the Criminal Justice system. I understand all one could expect from Martin would be a barely coherent racist tirade of such venom, it would make Richard Littlejohn sound like the Dalai Lama.

These brave polemicists, now including Chris Grayling, who advocate a disproportionate response, are unlikely to have had much experience of very violent encounters. Meting out retribution, nearly to the point of death, is only satisfying to thugs and sadists; to the rest of us it would be a highly traumatic psychological experience in itself and not one to relish.

Nearly a Revolution

Electoral reform, whose obituary was already half-written, appears to be rising Lazarus-like from the dead. On Monday, there was a meeting of the traditionally hidebound, Democratic Renewal Council. This Cabinet Committee contains nearly all senior Secretaries of State and is usually chaired by the PM but it was only Justice Secretary Jack Straw who was giving lobby briefings yesterday.

Wor Jack appears to be another recent convert to the cause of electoral reform, like so many turkeys who can smell the chestnut stuffing. It now looks like the movement for some degree of reform has reached a critical mass in cabinet, too much for even Gordy to resist.

The mechanics of its introduction will go like this; it will require initial approval by cabinet on Thursday then the laying a Government amendment to the Constitutional Reform Bill to be heard by the House in January. It will be paving legislaion for the next Government to pick up.

The whole Bill has yet to receive its second reading so those House managers will have to allow plenty of debate time. It will certainly put the Tories on the back foot and it will be amusing to see Dominic Grieve give his lawyer’s view, devoid of any sense of political justice.

But we shouldn’t get overly excited just yet, Straw has only stretched beyond his obstinacy to allow the Alternative Vote (AV). This system is currently used in London Mayoral elections where second and third preference votes are added until a candidate reaches 50%. The advantages are that it preserves the link between constituency and MP, by cannot be said to be proportional. It is in effect First-Past-The-Post lite. The Lib-Dems feel it is hardly worth the bother and I, for one, can see their point.

Blind to the Science

I suppose my initial scepticism over man-made global warming wasn’t thoroughly won over until I watched the C4 documentary, ‘The Great Climate Change Swindle’ a couple of years ago. The deniers’ case was so dismal, the science so obviously distorted, it had to be nonsense.

In fact, the tone of the ‘experts’ was much more akin to lunatic conspiracy theorists - they argued climate change was, “an industry, created by fanatically anti-industrial environmentalists, supported by scientists peddling scare stories to chase funding and propped up by complicit politicians and the media".

It may not be very scientific, politically speaking, to determine one’s view directly gauged by the opposition but looking at the denier's camp, I am confronted by an impressive array of prejudicial headbangers. In the U.S. it is Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and Russ Limbaugh - it was the portly shock jock who pronounced this week, “there is no data to support global warming whatsoever.”

In the UK , we have Melanie Phillips of the Daily Mail who describes the science as a, “total scam,” and contends perversely, “the earth’s climate is actually cooling.” Last week on BBC's Question Time, she was forced to listen to Comic and Campaigner, Marcus Brigstock relay his tales of his trips to the Arctic where learnt directly from the Inuits about the sudden melting of their ice-cap. Philips scoffed, laughing at this paltry ‘human’ evidence. Clearly Philips can discern all the knowledge she needs to know from her office in Southwark.

She still has some way to go to match the Grand Wizard of Conspiracy Theories, Nick Griffin who will be representing the EU at the Copenhagen Conference next week.. The potential for a BNP publicity stunt following this EU ballsup must be pretty high. On global warming Griffin opined, “The anti-western intellectual cranks of the left suffered a collective breakdown when communism collapsed. Climate change is their new theology…it is being used to impose an anti-human utopia as deadly as anything conceived by Stalin or Mao."

But the fallout from global warming is beginning to amount to more than just the rantings of a deranged minor politician. The political conflict in Australia is real enough. The National Liberal party was led, until last week, by Malcolm Turnbull, the charismatic lawyer from the 80s ‘Spycatcher’ case. Turnbull supported PM Kevin Rudd’s Emissions Trading Scheme Bill but that ‘treachery’ prompted an eruption of hostilities between the believers and deniers of the Liberal Party.

On Monday, Turnbull was replaced by John Abbott as leader after a narrow vote. Abbott, one of the country’s great Monarchists uses Aussie parlance freely and described global warming as “absolute crap.” It looks certainly possible Rudd’s inability to get his Bill through the Upper House may prompt a general election. It would be the first national poll where climate change is the main issue for debate, but certainly not the last.

Peaked too Soon

In the last few days before the 1987 election the Tory strategist, Lord Young really lost it when he saw Labour creeping up in the polls. Such was his degree of panic, he grabbed party chairman, Norman Tebbitt, by the lapels and shouted in his face, “we’re going to lose this f88king election!”

Of course, the Cons strolled to victory with a majority of 102, after Mandelson’s re-branding of Kinnock’s Labour party yielded a measly swing of just 1%.

It may be this episode has a lesson for the General election next year. One would hope, somewhat against hope, there is an intrinsic tendency for the Tory front rank to panic when there are growing doubts about a once assured victory. Cameron’s golden team of feckless yahoos has yet to be put under very much scrutiny let alone pressure by the Government or media, so it’s hard to predict.

The Tories need to maintain a 10 point lead in the polls to achieve a small but workable majority of 40 odd. Recent polling suggests that would be the height of their ambitions. Although no-one is suggesting they won’t be the largest party yet so we should still expect the prospect of PM Cameron.

The slight swerve of the Tory lead downwards remains something of a mystery still but it has coincided with the first series of negative stories about some of their muddled thinking and dubious senior figures. Zac Goldsmith (above) is exactly the sort of cove Cameron wants in Government; bright, charismatic, innovative, green-friendly. He has successfully played down his status as an old Etonian and offspring of Ernst Blofeld double, Sir James Goldsmith.

Although, Zac’s tax position has been publicly available since he became candidate for the Richmond constituency in March 2007, no-one has bothered much to report it. Now suddenly his ‘Non-Dom’ status is of interest to the news media and they cry, with faux shock, about his £200m fortune stashed way in the Cayman Islands . The Cons HQ claimed with 80s style arrogance, his tax affairs were a “private matter.”

Finally the papers are fixing on to this apparent lacuna in coverage and report these obvious flaws with breath-taking hypocrisy, “why have they got away with it so long?” There is still time for the full horror of being ruled by a bunch of millionaire upper crusts to hit home with the electorate. Dave has never had much reason to panic, it would be good if he started now.