The sky is blue and yesterday Saturday May 25th 2013 I sat in the warmth, at times hot watching Durham fail to get sufficient runs quickly enough to then bowl out Middlesex. However my attention is not now focussed on Sport but the hacking to death, including decapitation of a soldier as he walked to or from his barracks in London.
There are some who may argue that this was is just one more death of a soldier and just as brutal as the use of a bomb, rocket explosion and just as devastating for his family, in this instance a wife and, parents, uncle, aunts etc, friends and services colleagues as all untimely at unexpected deaths which occur on a daily basis from acts of violence, accident and natural causes.
That it happened on the streets of London close to a primary school, overlooked by a tall block of flats and passers by and that the perpetrators encouraged and requested everyone present to photo and film their actions and waited for the police to arrived reveals the purpose of the action to shock, create division and reaction among the civilian population and exert pressure to change foreign and domestic policy in favour of a particular approach to religion, government and law which includes the use of extreme violence, the making of women into inferior citizens and the subjects of male will, together with the desire to effectively exterminate homosexuality and lesbianism as part of the creation of a single form of society which incorporate the beliefs of a particular religion into every aspect of that society and which refuses to allow let alone accept any other set of beliefs and behaviours.
On one hand when this threat becomes real to any and everyone living in the British Islands it is the duty of government together with all responsible criticism to band together to take appropriate action to resist those so intended and to action to first reduce and then eliminate the threat.
However the approach of the Government and principal political parties has to be proportionate and so far it has been exemplary, to condemning the action, expressing sympathy and solidarity with the family of the victim and proclaiming that the attack on one is an attack on all and that those responsible will be brought to justice.
In this instance the police disabled by shooting but without killing the perpetrators whose lives will now be turned inside out as the process by which they became brutal killers will be unravelled and in particular if the action was planned to occur on the day or was brought forward because of some event, the third reading of the Bill to enable homosexual and lesbian couples to marry under the British Law in the same as heterosexual couples being the most likely precipitating cause. While a comparatively few members of the English Defence League went on the street of Woolwich for media purposes and were contained by the police in riot gear and individual mosques have been the subject of paint daubing and widow breaking, the approach has so far proved effective. There have been other associated arrests and in time the full story will emerge. In this respect we the general public and to lesser extent Parliament must be patient.
Sections of the media, including some politicians however unintentional have appeared to oversimplify the issues. There is the notion that to be a fundamentalist, to be radical is something not only wrong but dangerous and threatening. The fundamental issue is regardless of what people believe and to some extent say, is what they do and say within he law or not. If it is not lawful then the government must take appropriate and proportionate action and if it is the public interest prosecute, seek conviction and if successful an appropriate punishment designed to prevent similar acts and prevent the individual doing further harm.
It has been revealed that at least one if not both the individuals were known to the security forces and there will be an appropriate investigation to establish if more should and could have been done to intervene with the two and this prevent the incident. The reality is that while the police will take note through filming and access to membership lists those who belong to “extreme” view organisations and attend their gatherings and protests a balance has to be achieved between the creation of a police state no different from that which would be imposed by those being monitored. In terms of use of direct surveillance.
In this instance, according to a close friend of one of those now in custody the individual change his personality, outlook and behaviour after a visit to an African Country where he was physically ill treated. The same friend also claimed that the man had been not just been under surveillance but had been approached to work for the security services. If so this is what I would expect the security services to do as part of their role and function.
Since the appearance of the friend additional information has come from a relative and statements on behalf of the Kenyan and British Governments. It transpires that the assassin in question had been apprehended by the Kenyan Government along a small group of others allegedly on is way to terrorist training in Somalia. He had been held in prison there and then is reported to have been handed over to British Security without a trial and where the issue is if he was officially deported or not. An expert from the country argued that the Kenyan government did not take action without guidance from key International anti terrorist governments.
The idea therefore that this individual was just on the radar for having attended a meeting/ carried a placard etc for a known pro Islamist/pro violence organisation is exploded as nonsense and suggests that friends of security services were getting a version out into the media before the inquiry which will report to the House of Parliament security committee. They will want to know the extent of the efforts to get the individual to work for the services and the extent of their contact and follow up monitoring. I would have dismissed talk of conspiracy out of hand until recently but given the background of the Hillsborough and Bloody Sunday cover ups, the still unexplained role of the Police in the August rioting now a couple of years back and the general public knowledge of the way the security services have worked over the years I retain a concern at the amazing coincide of this event occurring immediately after the Commons Vote on Homosexual and Lesbian marriage(I wish officialdom would officially drop their support for the term Gay what was that all about?) and when the Prime Minister was under the greatest fire from his backbenchers over his refusal to bring forward any vote and action re Britain and the European Community.
Having said all this I underline my belief that the event horrific as it is must be put in perspective and the response of everyone must be proportionate. The aspect which brings the majority into conflict and which require immediate and ongoing state intervention is the breaking of the law particularly the use of violence and the advocacy of the use of violence. This applies is every similar situation and where the Public Interest must remain a key issue in determining whether and what level to prosecute, and with a conviction the nature of the punishment, deterrent effect and reform action taken by the courts.
I have not allowed myself to be influenced by listening to the abridgment of the latest Le Carré novel A Delicate Truth, I hope to read this book in time and will leave a thorough examination until then but the book is of interest not because it is based on an illicit going wrong anti terrorist action which goes horribly wrong, set in Gibraltar, but because of the main issue which appears to be the purpose of his work. The argument is that the nature of the British Government/security service, together with any relationship with private security forces and the police is such in the UK and it is impossible for anyone working within the system to challenge the system even when as in the instance of this story not just an innocent woman and child are killed by mistake but there is at last one murder of a participant as part of the cover up as well as threatening reprisals on others within government service if they attempt to rock the boat.. The significance of this Le Carré work more than his others is that it appears based on his personal experience with the retired chief living in Cornwall as he has done for the past forty years and the eventual hero, making his way in the service who decides to reveal all to the media, does so in the knowledge that not just his career will end but he is likely to face a long period of imprisonment, and the books ends with the police arriving at the Internet cafe from which he is uploading the story and back up information.
On Monday night last I stayed up to watch an hour long Panorama which attempted to explain why it has taken a quarter of a century for the truth about the Hillsborough killings of 96 Liverpool football supporters to emerge. The programme brilliantly set the scene and interviewed some of the family members who relived through the horror of what happened, the anger and the disappointments as enquiries were set up and the truth buried. The programme then with due care and attention explained the extent of the police and official cover up, the evident conspiracy to do so and pointed to certain individuals who may well be the focus of the three inquiries which are in the process of taking place with the Inquest next year after the two police investigations are completed and with one of these dealing with the issue of conspiracy to cover up. The lesson of Hillsborough is we must mow take with a large hand of salt any official statement or official inquiry into any allegation of state cover up, unless the inquiry is genuinely independent whose members have the approval of the victims, their relatives and those who have the evidence of a cover up and the inquiry team are to have available to them all the information and records in the hands of the authorities.
The slaughter of the solder on the streets of Woolwich came as I said just when Prime Minister Cameron, away this week with his family on holiday on a Spanish Island, was facing his biggest challenge from within the ranks of his political party.
The main issue that of the UK’s continuing membership of the European Economic Community where by law there has to be referendum if there are any significant changes to the constitutional position involving the transfer of new powers from the UK Parliament to that of the Community and its Ministers. The development of the United Kingdom Independence Party which achieved 25% of those voting in the South Shields Parliamentary by-election as well as about the same percentage in the local authority elections in County Council in England has had the effect of pushing those who want to see Britain leave the Community except for a trading relationship into a more open aggressive mode attempting to force the Prime Minister to commence negotiations to change the position of the UK in advance of the 2015 election and before the Community has decided the direction it wants to take on financial and economic union as a potential precursor to political union and where such a change will require a new arrangement for the UK and other countries who would not want to travel in the same direction.
I have a lot of sympathy with Mr Cameron who clearly does not want to risk a no vote to Britain’s continuing membership as well as appreciating the enthusiasm with which Labour and the Lib Dems, plus UKIP are exploiting the great division in the Tory Party between those who want out and those who want to find a way to stay in. He and his loyal Cabinet members and supporters have attempted to deflect media and public attention away from the division by emphasising that they are the only major political party offering an in out referendum.
The reality is the pressure from the constituencies comes from those who dislike Cameron’s modernization of the party, in some ways evens stronger than the complaint of old Labour against Tony Blair plus the spectrum of racists with the simple anti foreigner of the traditional Tory to the out and out racism of the National Front, despite the tokenism.
The clinging to outdated prejudices intermixed with sincere religious beliefs about has been a feature of the opposition in Parliament to Same Sex Marriage legislation which reached the third stage reading session in the House of Commons just before the half term recess. Listening to those proposing amendments to the presently drafted legislation these two forces were clearly evident complicating what is intended to be a simple and straightforward change to ensure that those who enter into homosexual and lesbian relationships are treated with equality under the law. This is therefore not intended to impose or force a change of the position taken by churches. Faith led schools or by educationalists generally. The debated centred on the role of Registrars whose body has not pressed for any kind exemption to be placed in legislation because of conscientious objection.
Those raising the situation were being deliberately disingenuous. The whole, the entire function of a registrar is to conduct a civil marriage ceremony (as well as registering births and deaths) in accord with the stated law of the UK (as modified for the separate nations). There can be no discretion in this. As with holding any public office if the individual does not agree with the requirements of their role as modified by the state over time they can change their occupation to a post which does not pose such a conflict between beliefs, conscience and their professional or managerial duties. Why should such individuals be given any greater consideration that workers who find themselves unemployed because their employer goes out of business or makes redundancies with a view to increasing the profit to shareholders?
Given that the law will not come into effect until next year the registrars will not be faced with the same horrendous experience as the worker who arrives to work one day to be told there is no job on the morrow. One of the Members of Parliament for Newcastle, part of a catholic family with a homosexual brother with partner spoke with a care and a sensitivity about the genuine dilemma which individuals of strong religious and secular beliefs have about balancing their personal views with national democratically agreed positions.
It was worthwhile listening to the sophisticated arguments of the proposed wreckers of the Bill, and who although comprised a majority of members of the Tory Parliamentary Party in the House of Commons were defeated by two to one with the rejection of their amendments and in the vote which gave the Bill its Third reading in the House of Commons. Their ability to mount such sophisticated opposition, is the hallmark of our democracy and that they were defeated in such an overwhelming way demonstrates the healthiness of our democratic state, just as the response of the people of Woolwich during those fifteen to twenty minutes between the killing and the taking of control any the police and anti terrorist forces.
It is this context the pressure is being exerted on the Lib Dem part of the coalition to remove their objection to the request from the Security Services and Police be allowed to monitor all emails to see who people contact but not the content of their mails unless special permission is granted. Thus is not only intended to cover the monitoring of potential terrorists but known criminals, suspected paedophiles and members of “extreme” organisations and groups. However even though I suspect their motives and interests such a move should mean that the British circulated newspapers will get their way on their response to Leveson as otherwise the power of government would become weighed against the role of investigative journalism.
Another concern is the extent to which Murdoch and the right of centre British Press barons and their editors will support UKIP until they give in over their independence request.
Talking of Independence it was interesting to see that Gibraltar has been granted entry to the European Football body as a recognised separate state. More this in the piece on recent support which was my original intention.
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