Posts Tagged ‘corruption’
Let’s Put Dave The Taxman On The Dole
Collect Your P45 On The Way Out
Who is this pompous, conceited, arrogant, Boris Johnson lookalike?
He’s Dave Hartnett, Permanent Secretary at Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. He’s refusing to apologise for getting tax deductions wrong for six million British taxpayers.
Just who the hell does he think he is? We’re back to Sir Humphrey and lazy, fatcat incompetence and corruption again. You’d think the civil service would have managed to drag itself entirely out of the 19th century by now wouldn’t you? Not this prize plonker. Maybe because his overgrown schoolboy, pudding basin haircut is just as messy as Boris’ he thinks he’ll endear himself to the British public? Hogwash. He’s the very opposite of Boris. He represents everything that’s bad about Britain – self-satisfied, smug, deluded, living in the past.
I say let’s get him sacked. Let’s create the biggest outcry against a useless civil sevant that the country has ever seen. Let’s lose Mr Hartnett his job. Let’s put him in his place – in the queue at the Jobcentre. Then we’ll see who’s a cocky, scruffy, little git won’t we?
For A Bad Cop, Prison Is Just The Start
Doing His Duty
I hope that ex-Police Sergeant Mark Andrews had a really bad night on Tuesday. It was his first night in jail after being sentenced to six months for assaulting Pamela Somerville, an innocent member of the public, someone he was paid and trusted to protect. See here for the full story.
I hope he had a really bad day yesterday too. I hope he’s scared. I hope he’s ashamed and racked with guilt. I hope he has a really bad day tomorrow and the day after and the day after that. I hope every single minute of his jail time is frightening, distressing, humiliating and painful. I hope he misses his wife and two children and is beside himself with grief and shame at the way he has let them down. The man is pond life scum. He should be extremely grateful that he got off so lightly because if I was the judge I would have considered six years to be a more appropriate sentence than six months. In fact, I really hope that the CPS appeals the sentence. There’s no way that it is sufficient. He’ll be out in just 13 weeks and free to go back to his family. He should be made to suffer.
When a police officer commits a crime, particularly an assault while on duty, it is far, far more serious than when it is an ordinary member of the public. It is a breach of trust. It is like a bank manager stealing from his own bank. It can never be forgiven. It has to be marked as the most heinous of crimes.
Sleazy Starmer
I suppose we have to be thankful that the CPS even brought charges in the first place. It and its thoroughly sleazy boss, Keir Starmer, seem to do everything they can to avoid bringing police officers to justice. Keir Starmer has the brazen cheek to pontificate about changing the system of murder charges when he is complicit in enabling police officers to avoid justice! See here. We’re really not interested in his thoughts about the future of justice in Britain. He is too deeply ensconsed in the corruption and failures of the past. We want him out of his job and on the scrapheap with Andrews. In fact, I’d have him in the cell next door to Andrews and I’d put them both back on slopping out but they could do each other’s rather than their own.
I congratulate Wiltshire Constabulary on bringing Andrews to justice and particularly the police officer who turned him in. That man deserves a medal.
Killer
Thug
This should send a signal to thugs like Delroy Smellie, Simon Harwood and every other bent cop that you will never, ever get away with your behaviour. Even if you manage to wriggle free like Smellie with the assistance of slimeball judges or evade the full force of the law like Harwood with the help of his crony Starmer, we, the British public, will never let you off. It won’t ever be over for you, whether or not you do time in prison. You and your kind are on a life sentence. You will be despised, reviled, hated and subject to ridicule and abuse until the end of your days. You deserve nothing less.
British Justice On Trial
Thugs, Slimeballs And Grunts
At last, four of the Metropolitan Police’s Territorial Support Group are to stand in the dock charged with assault causing actual bodily harm and a jury is to decide their fate. They are PC Nigel Cowley, PC Mark Jones, PC Roderick James-Bowen and DC John Donohue.
He's Got To Go
Perhaps Keir Starmer, Director Of Public Prosecutions, thinks he will win back some credibility through this after his catastrophically bad judgement in the Ian Tomlinson case. Not a bit of it. In fact, the decision to prosecute now after a successful civil claim against these thugs, proves how negligent the original decision was. The CPS is charged to uphold the public interest by statute. It should not have to be harried to the Court reluctantly by civil action. Yet again, Keir Starmer should hang his head in shame. In fact, he should resign
These officers have already been proven on the balance of probabilities to have illegally assaulted Babar Ahmad in 2003. Last year the High Court heard that he was subject to “serious, gratuitous, prolonged, unjustified violence” and “religious abuse”. Now the criminal courts will seek to extend that proof to beyond a reasonable doubt. Meanwhile, the Met, which decided against any disciplinary action, chooses not even to suspend these proven thugs and bullies. Sir Paul Stephenson should join them in the dock. His disrespect for due process is astounding. How can he have such men under his command? The IPCC also failed in this case – yet again. In 2007, it decided to take no action against any of the officers.
Keeping Mum
Almost every day now, new horror stories of illegal, brutal or simply dumb police behaviour are revealed. This is the reward we have reaped from the massive investment and huge increase in salaries we gave to the police in the 80s. According to my contact with inside knowledge it is due to a “collapse in supervision…and an arrogance due to few cops having much other work experience”. The police service is no such thing for the average British citizen. It is a self-serving bureaucracy with an aggressive sub-culture, acting as a revenue generating workforce for the state. It is institutionalised racism, brutality, prejudice, bullying, corruption, cowardice, freemasonry, all dressed up in a jack-the-lad, paramilitary uniform. It isn’t even any good at what it does. Aside from dealing with road accidents and high-level anti-terrorism, I know of little good work done by the British police. It has become an out of control monster that avoids doing what the public wants and picks and chooses what to devote its resources to.
PC Simon Harwood
If Keir Starmer can reverse his decsion on these thugs who beat up a suspected terrorist, he can also reverse his decison on the fatal assault on Ian Tomlinson, an entirely innocent bystander. Meanwhile we await impatiently the coroner’s inquest on his death and the disciplinary hearing against PC Simon Harwood, which must be held in public in accordance with the statutory provisions.
Every time that a police officer breaks the law or exceeds his powers he breaches our trust. It is the same as a bank employee stealing from his bank. It must be punished particularly severely. This must be the standard that British police adhere to. We must never relent from calling the corrupt and incompetent to account.
We Wait For Justice
Whether a conviction is possible in this latest case, seven years after the events took place, I don’t know. On the basis of its own rules the CPS must believe a conviction is more likely than not or it wouldn’t be proceeding . Justice delayed though, is justice denied for Babar Ahmad and the policemen. This repeated and continuing incompetence by the prosecution and regulatory authorities is every bid as dangerous as the deterioration in the police. Suspicions of corruption, collusion and conspiracy are inevitable and must be answered. These are serious threats to British justice.
Moat’s Last Moments. Are All Our Policemen Wonderful?
Almost Over
On Friday night they had Raoul Moat cornered at last. It was the culmination of something more akin to a military invasion than a reasonable response to just one deranged nutter. Northumbria Police had already made fools of themselves but we were all biting our lips, not yet protesting, hoping against hope that there would be no further casualties.
The first photographs from the stand-off were released and they clearly showed police pointing tasers. On BBC News the ex-police firearms expert was interviewed and asked why a taser couldn’t be used to disable Moat. He answered quite unequivocally that using a taser when a man has a gun pointed at his head was more than likely to result in him firing the weapon involuntarily.
First thing on Saturday morning and it was no surprise to learn that Moat was dead. What was utterly shocking was to learn that two tasers had been fired and the recording broadcast by the BBC revealed the shouting before the sound of the shotgun blast. The unavoidable conclusion is that exactly what the firearms expert had predicted was what happened.
I don’t have any sympathy for Moat. As far as I’m concerned a good case could have been made for him being shot on sight but I am very, very unhappy with the way the police handled the affair.
All Over Now
It may be that the denouement itself was handled properly. We will never know what really happened however many inquiries we have. What I am certain of is that overall the police should have done much better. Those far, far better qualified to judge than me have already said as much. I speak only as a concerned citizen.
I really worry about our police service. While I believe there are many brave, honourable coppers, some of whom are highly skilled, there are too many worrying indications that our police service is not up to the job.
There’s thuggery and the rank-closing covering-up and justification of it. There’s the appalling canteen culture which is at the root of all the institutionalised racism, thuggery and freemasonry. There’s the amateurish approach of senior officers who seem barely competent at times. There is inevitably some corruption but also a long-running deception that the decision to prosecute is at arms length. The police decide who to investigate in the first place. The CPS and the police eat in the same canteen
Look at the brutality of the police, the TSG in particular, at the Gaza and G20 protests and how they’ve got away with it. Look at the Inspector Gadget police website for an insight into the disgusting attitude of many officers. Look at the management of situations like the Cumbrian shootings and the Raoul Moat affair and the use of ludicrous, self-evidently bad ideas like the “kettling” at the Gaza and G20 protests. Look at the income generation from speed cameras promoted by some chief constables. Look at the absurd, intrusive, wildly excessive use of CCTV. Look at the ridiculous administration routines that many chief constables have imposed. Look at the insistence on retaining the DNA of innocent people.
The police are now very well paid. A starting police officer gets about twice as much as a starting soldier. They have wonderful pension arrangements. They’re also excused, let off and get away with behaviour that should never be allowed. Look at the thug, Sergeant Delroy Smellie , who repeatedly beat Nicola Fisher at the G20 protest and got away with it, or the officer who assaulted Ian Tomlinson, who later died, and who has still not been charged over a year later.
All the brave, honourable coppers are let down by those bad apples which myopic “support” of the police allows to rot and infect the rest.
The British police service needs a shake up. It is complacent and inefficient. Excellent work is done in anti-terrorism and organised crime but the truth is not all our policemen are wonderful. We need to face up to that truth and make some changes. Perhaps locally elected police chiefs are a way forward.
I Weep For Jamaica
Ocho Rios
The events unfolding in Jamaica are disastrous for the country, its reputation, tourist industry and economy. They give an impression that is completely false. In reality it is a wonderful place, full of kind, warm, generous people. I was astonished on my first visit to find the countryside lush and green, rather like Cornwall or Wales and the people more friendly than anywhere else I have ever been.
I was very privileged to be introduced to Jamaica by a Jamaican. It was no all-inclusive tourist resort for me. There the poor Brits hunker down and never move anywhere. They seem to believe that right outside the gates are a bunch of Uzi-toting crack dealers but it’s simply not true. I’ve been back several times and I love the place. I recommend Ocho Rios on the north coast of the island.
True, the murder rate is one of the highest in the world but it all happens in a very small area of Kingston. The rest of the island is peaceful and probably safer than London. I have been through the Tivoli Gardens and Trench Town districts where all the trouble is. It’s not a good place. You lock the car doors and windows and you don’t stop but it is tiny. According to my memory it’s not much bigger than, say, Regent’s Park so it’s easy to avoid.
My Local
Undoubtedly at the root of these problems is high level corruption and I wouldn’t be surprised if that extended to US officials as well as Jamaican. The cocaine trade is a huge curse on the country but while the world continues with its ludicrous, discredited policy of prohibition it will never solve the problem. Drug laws support and encourage organised crime and corruption. If we stay on our present course things will only get worse.
I weep for Jamaica and its wonderful people. Without radical international action, I have no idea how this problem can be solved.
OFT – Incompetence, Conspiracy, Paper Tiger Or All Three?
I’m one of the lucky ones. I recovered over £2000 of illegal penalty charges from the Nationwide and HSBC a couple of years back before the High Court stayed all the claims. I had the great pleasure of walking into HSBC’s Kilburn branch with a judgment stamped by the Bow County Court (local to its Canary Wharf headquarters). I demanded my money there and then and created a right hiatus in the branch! I didn’t get it then but I did the following day in crisp £50 notes.
Den Of Thieves
It goes without saying that the banks are all, without exception, cheats, thieves, liars and lowlife scoundrels. That’s why millions of people were relying on the Office Of Fair Trading to stand up for them. The OFT’s decision now to drop their action against the banks is a national disgrace of monstrous proportions. Although we cannot be sure of exactly who is behind this scandal, the fact that dishonesty, corruption and theft are at the root of it is manifest and crystal clear.
The banks were making around £7 billion a year in charges, most of which were for unauthorised overdrafts. Claimants would have been able to claim for six years of charges so the banks have been let off a £40 billion hook. Never have the British people been so let down by those who are supposed to protect them.
The High Court first made the extraordinary decision that these charges were not penalty charges. This is nonsense. HSBC actually described many of their charges to me as “card misuse” – so is that a penalty or not?. Of course they were and as such were illegal and unenforceable at law. When the banks debited your account like this they were committing theft and they’ve got away with it scot free.
It has now been well established that the actual cost to the banks of these transactions were less than £2 each when they were charging their customers up to £40 a time.
It must be truly astonishing to any right minded person that the OFT has backed down. Even in the last Supreme Court judgement the OFT was given a clear hint, more like an invitation, that it should revert to the Court on a different basis. So what possible reason can there be for abandoning the claim?
There can be no doubt that this decision is improper. I wonder why it was announced on 22nd December when the entire country was at the peak of its pre-Christmas mass hysteria?
Two Faced Coward
John Fingleton, the OFT’s chief executive, should resign immediately. He is either corrupt or weak. He certainly has no integrity because whatever pressure or bribery has been put upon him he should have fought to his last breath to stop this massive crime by the banker robbers.
We cannot rely on these paper tigers of consumer protection. We certainly cannot rely on government. It is doubtful that our self-serving, whipped and bullied MPs will do anything meaningful. It seems the only option now may be molotov cocktails through the door of every bank premises throughout the country. How else are we supposed to protect ourselves when we are so badly let down?
We live in an entirely monetised society. It is impossible to function without a bank account. Therefore, the banker robbers must be regulated virtually to death. Their policies and profits must be ruthlessly controlled. Their crimes must not be overlooked but punished severely with massive multi-billion pound fines for the institutions and long prison sentences for the responsible executives.
Hoodwinked By The Banker Robbers
That’s you and me. We’re the one’s who’ve been conned and cheated. Gordon, Alistair, the FSA – they’re all either criminally negligent incompetents or co-conspirators.
Absolutely nothing has changed in the world of banking. Is any more proof needed that the people running banks are liars, cheats and thieves? Aside from the systematic extortion of the taxpayer, none of the promises about lending to the real ecomony or reining in their depraved “culture” have been kept.
Spineless assurances will not do anymore. The government must radically overhaul the terms of the licences under which banks operate. Real leadership and responsibility is needed now to ensure that this happens before the end of the year – not after months or years of consultation and behind the scenes corruption.
Businesses that want to enjoy the huge privilege of serving UK consumers as bankers must be held to a strict and rigidly enforced rulebook. No participation in casino banking, minimum levels of lending, maximum levels of interest rates and charges, a “right to borrow” for those businesses and consumers who meet straightforward criteria.
These steps are essential to re-establish the operation of an effective market economy. In a world which has become entirely monetised we can no longer be subject to the rapacious and avaricious behaviour of those who run the money business.
Khamenei Defiles Islam
Evil Hypocrite
When you see an old man like Ayatollah Ali Khamenei talking such absolute drivel it is tempting to think that he is either senile or mad. Clearly though, the truth is he is simply bad. His conduct will do more to set back the cause of Islam than almost anything else. This is why the name of Islam is shamed throughout the world. If followers of the Prophet can not find some honest, intelligent and sincere spokesmen then their religion and the culture that surrounds it will be forever condemned as a medieval anachronism.
His speech today is a catastrophic mistake and misjudgment but it will lead to a better future. I believe it will enrage the educated and intelligent people of Iran. He obviously believes that the people are stupid and that they can be bullied or terrorised into accepting that the elections were fair and that there is no corruption. It would be easier to claim that he is deluded but no, I think this man is simply evil and it would be in the best interest of all mankind, Muslim, Christian, Jew, Hindu, non-believer if he were gone.
Who will rid us of this turbulent priest?
Lord Taylor The Slut
It’s hardly a surprise that members of the House Of Lords have been lining their own pockets by charging for political influence. M’Lord Taylor you are just the first or the latest rather naive, bumbling old fool to be caught with your trousers down. You can have no excuse. You are “bang to rights”. There is no room for such venal, inept corruption in our modern world. Do the decent thing.
The Banks, The OFT, Avarice and Evil
At last, some straight talking from the OFT about the way the Banks treat consumers. As if we didn’t know it already but there is no excuse for the way these evil institutions have been allowed to operate and there can be no more compromise or filibuster about the consequences for them. They behave as if they are above the law. They conduct themselves in ways which in any other context would be defined as theft and fraud. Whilst they throw people out of their homes, deny legitimate business the means to operate, they let their cocaine-fuelled gamblers take ludicrous risks on ridiculous schemes and all the time present themselves as the backbone of our financial system.
Christ’s rage in the temple is the precise analogy. It is time that we saw some of these silver haired, grey suited monsters in jail. Their depth of corruption and manipulation and creation of misery has no comparison. Right now the financial squeeze we are all suffering is entirely down to the incompetence of the banks in making lending decisions based only on the greed of individuals conspiring to create multi-million pound bonuses for themselves. They deny honest, hard-working people the means to progress or recover but there is no consequence for themselves when things go wrong.
Let us pray that the OFT follows through on this properly and brings to heel these out of control, rabid dogs.
Peter Reynolds 