|
I could not resist a few comments about the Southport murders Commenting on national news stories at the present is rather more straightforward than it usually is, in that there are several distinct and prominent threads dominating the international news which more or less all relate directly to the election of a new labour government in the UK. A salient first observation is that this government's majority is highly illusory in nature, perhaps more so than any majority that has ever been contrived to appear in "the mother of all parliaments." I believe there is enormous scope for hazard, misunderstanding and disorder in the manner in which a party that has captured only one third of the votes cast has captured two thirds of the representation in the legislature, have commented many times that our so called democracy is tragically out of date with its fptp voting system, and that such discrepancies will inevitably have serious repercussions with regard to the long term decline of public confidence in national institutions at home and abroad. Whilst it is interesting that politicians arguably get caught out by their own illusions in being the target as well as the source of a lot of effective and misleading social and political propaganda, I believe the furore over the labour government's withdrawal of the winter heating allowance might signify some admission that Westminster might have to take the PR issue more seriously in the near future. What is of the remark that before long there will be as many pensioners as working people and one relevant observation has to be, that conventional logic tends to suggest that voters are not realistically going to endlessly vote themselves improving benefits or allowances without some helpful intervening circumstance such as general economic growth, improving scientific development and/or production techniques. This article by Tim Burrows for the Guardian in May of '23 paints an eerily discordant note on the Chancellors growth optimism in detailing a less than thoroughly responsible history of waste management in the region. I do not imagine that anyone really doubts the desirability of confronting the environmental issue whilst government seems paralysed to act in the face of demands for reduced immigration. This article by Frankie Elliot for the Mail on Feb 6th this year highlights both the scale of the problem and the lack of effective regulation in relating the recent dumping of 30 000 tons of building waste in the ancient Kentish beauty spot where Sarah Everard's body was found. If you do not happen to have much relevant education or insight it can be difficult to work out what is the meaningful truth about many environmental stories but this story about two retirees Ashley Smith and Peter Hammond who put their investigative and analytical skills to work when they found themselves disconsolately facing a palpably disappearing wildlife in their Cotswolds retreat uncovers some fairly dark truths about the water industry which I tend to suggest is fairly symbolic of government in our time so it is worth reading just in that respect. That they have had some success in mapping the scale of water degradation particularly in England as was related in Oliver Bulough's Guardian article of August 2022 is not quite so noteworthy ignorance in itself as the fact they swiftly found that there is in fact an almost complete and entirely routine ignoring of environmental laws being undertaken by water companies on an enormous industrial scale as there also was with farmers. It is unquestionably a fact that there are increasing numbers of dire warnings about the state of the environment in our modern media but this one really is outstanding and these two gentlemen are clearly to be highly commended for their expose: the facts about how successive tory ministries have left the countryside at the mercy of their farming and shareholder friends will be costing them a lot of votes from their core support base for many years to come. What is as I say of the fact the labour government is touting the idea that it was elected to rebuild Britain which is all too arguably a load of tosh; I do not want to say that I would much rather have a sensible and well reasoned government policy I could happily agree with. The simple fact is rather however that we live in a two party state and have done for a hundred years; when such a matter of fact happens to be the case the opposition party has to get in sooner or later. How anyone with a one third majority can feign to have any kind of a mandate is quite beyond me in many ways. Be that as it may this labour government may represent the last best chance for any kind of genuine government by consensus in this country before we get taken over by AI or succumb to missiles and plague or some other manufactured hazard. The tories were unusually unpopular even for an outgoing ministry but it was not enthusiasm for labour that produced such a disproportionate number of seats but very arguably Rishi Sunak's calling of an early election, in that this rather stymied Reform's backers who were deprived of an expected opportunity to strategise effectively for an expected November election. The fact the tories had gotten themselves elected by promising to get Brexit done and reduce immigration and then spent 13 years or so getting around to the admission they could not do it because of some 80 year old human rights convention has not gone down very well. The Reform vote signified very strongly that there is a clear desire to end the waves of immigration that have filled our communities with all manner of strange outsiders and that this perhaps more than any other issue will dominate voter intentions in the coming few years. Reform are presently too good at making expensive sounding promises and there is no reason to believe another political party can achieve real change without reform of the voting system itself. Perhaps the worst aspect of this complete ignorance of democratic principle in electing a government that is supposedly a democracy is the extent to which labour grandees seem oblivious to this general disaffection though this is perhaps not quite entirely unacknowledged by front bench ministers. Perhaps the most outstanding example is that of the Health Minister Wes Streeting who has had little hesitation in oft repeating his view that the NHS is in a broken state. Such a remark does of course entail much in the way of qualification and description for it to be meaningful in that it really necessitates a broad understanding of and societal consensus around what the Health Service should be according to various differing parties and what it actually is in reality. Notwithstanding these things we do at least have a new government with some kind of a brief to modernise the role and functioning of the state as the 21st century continues to unwind into the goggling addle pated minds of voters and citizens with endless real and legitimate concerns. It seems however that detailed debate on the domestic agenda, even the squealing of the nation's farmers at inheritance tax plans, is going to take second place whilst eastern conflicts and a new Potus insist on monopolising so much media attention. The notion of modernising local government specifically poses an interesting challenge for the nation's professionals and public servants in particular. Offhand I do not think much of the notion of having a Mayor for two counties like some sort of regional governor. A Mayor is supposed to be a master of ceremonies and a figurehead for a specific community whether it be as the Mayor of London or Mayor of a remote shire community of a few hundred. I am personally very concerned that preconceptions about democracy and the rule of law are already far too illusory in nature, and that creating mega councils may find local councillors even more removed from the communities of which they are supposedly representative. One example of this sort of accepted pretence of democracy being the single major force in managing the lives of the population which demonstrates quite well this rhetorical illusion is in respect of the murder of Billy McNicholl on Ipswich's Chantry estate in recent months which I believe is still under investigation. I recognise him as very much a Chantry resident of about my age from the newspaper articles about his death, and what is relevantly of the remark that having lived in several different corners of the town by the time I was twenty two I arguably recognise most people of about my age in the Town. The point is to say that some Tory County Councillor by the name of Nadia Cenci who happens to represent Chantry on the County Council has had the remark published that Billy was a much loved resident of the estate published several times in the EADT and I do not believe she has the faintest idea what sort of person he was or was not. Saying that it is generally more appropriate for a town/borough councillor to make such comment really betokens the remark I definitely had noticed whilst still in my teens that councillors, even labour councillors, do not really take that much interest in their electorate. Town Councillors are in theory the first link between communities and the political establishment but for instance I have never once heard of a labour councillor actually living in any of the poorer working class wards in the town. The observation tends to reinforce the remark that our pseudo-democracy is something arranged from above and that political representation is not something that spontaneously arises from dialogue in local communities which in theory it is supposed to. What is in further commenting on the current political landscape, very much of the remark that Reform UK's electoral success is not solely a genuinely spontaneous reaction to the anomie and ineffectuality of the major parties but significantly rather a calculating attempt by certain kinds of erstwhile Tory extremists and American financiers to define future political narratives by playing on ignorance and populism for their own ends: the same seems to be true if perhaps not similarly so, of the German AfD of whom it is also widely reported that they have been bankrolled by the Muskrat. This story by Anna Orwin Algeo and Iain Overton for the Byeline Times on 28 02 25 investigates the manner in which taxpayers' funds are being routed via private arms contracts to Reform UK. This article by Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah, Secretary General of Civicus, a global alliance of civil society organisations for the Guardian on 06 03 25 provides a lot of meaningful and useful information about the larger political and economic context to these domestic developments. This article by Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield for the Guardian also on 06 03 25 provides further detail in investigating the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) system, a set of private courts which had been opposed by President Biden in which companies can sue countries for billions. Such a putative perspective on international economic realities in which nation states are pawns of capitalist investors rather than vica versa, may lie behind such sentiments as are expressed by Caroline Lucas in another Guardian article of 29 01 25 which bemoans the labour government's disinterest in traditional social justice issues in respect of the undermining of the right to peaceful protest. As far as the state of the nation goes in a more purely national perspective I am minded to recall the unnervingly down to earth view I had acquired by the age of seventeen that there was something suspiciously sinister about the manner in which meaningless democracy is peddled as an explanation for everything. This is all too well substantiated by such factual articles as William Ralston's Guardian article of 04 03 25 about a toxic fire which has been burning in east London for years which has been arguably affecting the health of the nearby community for which nobody can be held responsible. It is a devastating indictment of local democracy and the legal system by any reckoning. One person who owned the land recently and was imprisoned for installing a cannabis farm had evaded a legal compulsion to clean up the land by dissolving his company and transferring ownership to himself. Mentioning the fact in a legal context tends to prompt some mention of Sirin Kale's Guardian article of 20 02 25 about a rogue letting agency or agencies operating with a similar sort of impunity from legal censure by the same device of hiding behind the facade of a limited company also strongly tends to substantiate the assertion our criminal justice system is in a state of crisis. Alex South's 20 02 25 article on the state of the Prison Service also tends to raise questions about some perceived lack of a traditional progressivist ideology in the thinking of the labour government. This was arguably a significant element in the context of the trial of PC Martyn Blake for the alleged murder of Chris Kaba in September 2022 in that a new labour government was faced with some general expectation of a more progressivist interpretation of events especially in respect of the usual chorus of disapproval from civil rights groups. I did not find much of the reporting of that case very clear in terms of the actions that took place, and what one might happen to think of the allegation itself really entailed some precise consideration of legal definitions which was neither very forthcoming. The police did behave petulantly with colleagues walking out and threatening to make problems and the only impression I did get for sure was that a lot of the individuals involved felt that the system was failing, in that I expect many jurors did want to find fault with an all too arguably gratuitous shooting but surrendered to pressure to not cross the line of actually convicting for murder. Speculation about the event tends to centre on a sort of subliminal argument about the direction policing is going to take, in that it obviously costs a lot of money to try such matters, and it is too convenient to ignore questions about the future of the criminal justice system. The burden of proof in such cases has to be high but so does the burden of responsibility on police officers. I have to admit I did not understand why it was that an unnecessary killshot on an unarmed person was rejected as murder since that is how murder is defined in the UK. From what I saw of the shot, I suppose it did look as if Mr Kaba had rolled into the path of the bullet but I did not see that PC Blake needed to open fire. Sammy Gecsoyler's Guardian article of 03 03 25 detailing a similar incident also from 2022 in which a man who had been waving a lighter about on Chelsea Bridge was tasered three times before falling to his death in the Thames does nothing to dispel the suspicion that British police are getting a bit trigger happy here and there, perhaps partly as a result of the impact of US interest. The recent story about how two Sussex PC's had tasered a one legged 92 yr old care home resident with dementia has aroused a great deal of derision in the media: not least because he subsequently died in hospital. Nick Ferrari's Express article is quite succinct in its description of the officers as oafs which I feel is rather mild language really. Rachel Salvidge's Guardian article of Sat 19 Apr 2025 provides more information about PFAs in the environment. Specifically detailing that the Environment Agency has identified thousands of sites around the UK that really require detoxification. Jon Ungoed-Thomas and Raphael Boyd for the Guardian in October of 24 in an article describing the dangerous deceptions about water quality being foisted on the public in England. Raphael Boyd for the Guardian also in October of 24 in another article examining the issue of water quality in the Welsh marches where under-investment in infrastructure is impacting the iconic Malvern Hills. Jon Ungoed-Thomas and Raphael Boyd for the Guardian again in October of 24 examining water quality in England present an expose of environmental regulations as a routine box ticking exercise. Robyn Vinter the Guardian's North of England correspondent sadly relates in Guardian article from 26 April this year that long term waste management in England has consisted of little more than short term profiteering and that the country is peppered over with thousands of dumpsites that have no record of what has been discarded in them. It's such a big fat surprise to hear via the Mail's Chief Reporter Sam Greenhill that the government covered up knowledge of Julie Ward's high profile killer for political purposes: she was supposed to have been eaten by Lions whilst on a safari in 1988. Also via the Mail's Chief Reporter Sam Greenhill is an article from 15 May 2025 which concisely goes over the main facts concerning the fact that 'The beast of Birkenhead' Peter Sutcliffe convicted for the aggravated murder/rape of 21 yr old Diane Sindall in 1986 is in fact an innocent man. Coming so soon after the exoneration of Andrew Malkinson and the conviction of Constable Wayne Couzens for rape and murder the matter distinctly raises the public eyebrow in a questioning stare at the Ministry of Justice and the legal services community. Whilst I have no general interest in seeing further societal chaos erupt at such disclosures, my natural concerns are obviously rather diluted by the effective denial of citizenship rights these have inflicted on me. How many more such characters are we going to fish out of our penal institutions in the near future I wonder? Mr Malkinson did go to some lengths in expressing his view that there were quite a few who should ..... I suppose I cannot help but obtain a certain amount of bitter satisfaction from the evident discomfiture of the legal establishment at these events seeming to signify a more fundamental crisis of confidence in institutions generally and from my own particular point of view in the first instance that of the legal establishment in general. The various incoming comments about the million pound compensation cap on such cases echo various comments I have made over many years about the necessity for a complete re-evaluation of the country's criminal justice system; independence of the judiciary is one thing but as it exists the current system gives too much power to lawyers and the performance of judicial figures is all to arguably haphazardly lacking in any kind of strategic consistency. It seems to have been rumoured that Mr Sutcliffe was a patsy for someone connected to the local underworld in Birkenhead during the Thatcher heyday so the affair might also agree with my oft repeated assertion that people learn to play the game and that characters who are professional or habitual sorts of criminals learn how to manipulate the system. Simon Hattenstone's Guardian article of 25th May examines the question as to whether or not our boys and girls in blue have stooped to fabricating terrorist convictions in an attempt to reassure the general public: one of four young Indian males two of whom had almost once made it to a terrorist training camp before bottling out, is supposed to have handed over his car keys to his courier company boss so that the boss could move the car, with weapons and explosives left in it. The article portrays the trial as farcical in its irregularity and tends to suggest that the convictions have been obtained with evidence fabricated by an under cover police team: when it is of course the fact that our darlings in blue have never been known to do anything of the sort. A propre discussion of contemporary law and order in such a context as might seem to present itself, ie the present carelessness of the new labour administration toward the ineluctable necessity for the CJS to fulfil its function in society, with due attention to various ideological considerations and perspectives in framing some kind of long term strategy for a world that has changed rather a lot since trial by jury was instituted. This seems to progress logically toward another major headache for the CJS with the question as to the various impressions people may have acquired as the result of the publicity ensuing from the Nurse Letby conviction for multiple infanticide. David Conn's Guardian article of the 14th of May goes over many of salient details as well as anyone's I suppose. Anyone might be forgiven for being confused by the enormity of the discrepancies between what the prosecution have put over and what leading experts from around the globe have said about the quality of the medical evidence itself. One internationally renowned neonatologist has reacted with severe indignation at the use of one of his research papers by the CPS. It is difficult to credit the extent to which his indisputably top drawer credentials in fact support the remark that there were no murders at all, and that if the standards he had found at the hospital in question had occurred under his jurisdiction he would have had it closed down: he particularly stressed poor staffing levels. Among other things I tend to suggest that if not so much the judges in the case that certainly many in the CPS are not sufficiently scientifically literate to readily comprehend the medical issues and biological nomenclature and that this mixes badly with an antiquated legal system heavily reliant on testimony and adversarial courtroom decisions obtained by arbitrary preparation. Some of that is admittedly a bit outside my own range of insight and experience in that the judges in this country are all public school network characters but I am probably a little less ignorant of much of the science than the average kind of defence lawyer that was ambushed with a certain kind of story from what is in fact very much a minority medical opinion: Mr Conn describes in quite superlative terms how overwhelming and unprecedented the evidential dispute is but our legal system has it as irrelevant. On the downside from the young Nurse's point of view is the families largely seem to believe her guilty and at least one parent had thought he had seen her tampering. Dr Lee does address this point to some extent and my own experience tells me, as do healthcare professionals I have known, that we should be prepared to believe not only that our hot political potato NHS is in fact very fallible, but that many do spend too much time glossing over its failings for various motives that can hardly be described as anything more virtuous or congenial than cheap social propaganda. It seems very arguable the conviction is too convenient for a health service that is too good at failing to acknowledge its failings and limitations and One tends to consider that also unlearned families will tend to believe what they are told. What must have struck many as most damning were these notes in Letby's house which most again would definitely seriously consider as evidence of confession so the obvious question is to how these may have been explained; I suppose they could just be taken as an over-worked and under-funded over-stressed and hard-working individual seeking to express a certain amount of professional frustration with work matters and it is surely about time we heard something of this. In summation of the case it is inescapably salient that what we have is the British legal system very questionably acquitting the British health service of responsibility for baby deaths which according to the best informed opinion are rather caused by inferior standards than by some inexplicably homicidal nurse. The public has not quite heard a reasonably complete account of evidence from those actually involved in the deaths in that that the media covering the trial referred fairly haphazardly to what people had actually seen her do on the ward. There is also the fact her parents seem unreserved in their asseverations of her innocence and the fact is that they perhaps more than anyone must know the truth about their daughter's actions, and it seems a fair assumption that if they had really really thought their child culpable of such heinous and curiously motiveless acts, that they would not have defended her in entirely unqualified terms which they have: I thought offhand that they seemed like the very last sort of people who would dissemble in any way in such a matter.
|