What’s in a Name?
Quite a lot, if it’s your good name that we’re talking about.
Not so much, I suspect, if it’s the name of someone you’ve never met, and are never likely to meet; some wealthy git, who’s had life easy – I don’t know, let’s hit on Max Clifford – no one likes him, deserves everything he gets, right? Besides which, didn’t the papers say he was a nonce? Why on earth should you care about his good name, eh? In fact, why even bother to read this article? It’s obviously written by someone with an ‘agenda’, ‘cos she hasn’t started by saying that Clifford was arrested by the ‘Savile Police’. Well, that’s as good as guilty isn’t it?
On the other hand, you might stick around for a paragraph or two, just to reinforce your prejudices – so read on MacDuff….
Now, I’m not suggesting for one moment that those of you on your second marriage might ever p*ss off that sullen step-daughter so badly that she decides to allege you grabbed her left breast on your way past on the stairs, nor that those giggling schoolgirls who asked for a fag whilst you were installing double glazing in the gym might get their own back for your callous refusal by claiming you put your hand up their skirt – you’re not like these rich celebrities arrested by the Savile Police, are you – for a start you’re not a nonce! You’re just an ordinary bloke going about your business. None of this has got anything to do with you!
Except it has.
Because now that we have established that a simple allegation from a couple of those schoolgirls is enough to see you arrested and named and shamed in your local newspaper, and since you are not a nonce and it’s all a bloody joke innit, you might be quite interested in clearing your good name. I mean, you’ll want to go back to work when it’s all over, you won’t want the neighbours out front chanting ‘paedo, paedo‘ will you?
Then you might get a shock. Not in terms of ‘proving you didn’t do it’, ‘cos you know you didn’t, you’ve got mates who were there at the time who’ll give evidence, you’ll get a decent brief, and he’ll sort it out – on legal aid of course, ‘cos it’s a criminal matter and you’re just an ordinary working bloke yeah? Not some sort of celebrity with pots of money.
Not so fast, Sunshine!
You’ll want some sort of barrister who’s used to these sort of cases, won’t you. Not the sort of guy who goes round county courts getting people thrown out of their houses ‘cos they haven’t paid their mortgage, but the sort of guy who’s had long experience of what they call ‘historic abuse cases’, step-daughters who decided to ‘get even’ with you seven years later.
You do have around a quarter of a million pounds sitting around in the bank don’t you? No, I’m not being silly – this is why I told you to read on MacDuff….
After the 2nd of December, which is all of 23 days away now, those experienced barrister used to complicated cases won’t be taking them on Legal Aid any longer – not even if the case has already started and they’ve been preparing it for months will they go on working after that date…..
The Government has decided to cut their fees by 30%, which you might even have thought was a good thing at the time – ‘smarmy gits, they get paid far too much anyway’, you said.
So unless you have that quarter million to pay them, (and you can’t just make up the 30% difference, it’s like the NHS, you are either private or public funded) which is about average for fees on a complicated case, they won’t be working for you. You will be going to court with an inexperienced young barrister who was prepared to take that fee cut, or the alcoholic misfit on his third chambers who’ll take any case for the money – and if that’s fine by you, well, OK then.
That does mean that you won’t have a decent solicitor either though, because no good solicitor is going to take on clients that can only afford cut rate barristers to defend them – that way lies bankruptcy.
You could sell your house, if you have one – but where are you going to live then – you don’t get the money back when you are found innocent.
My advice would be make absolutely sure you never, ever, upset the step-daughter; give those schoolgirls everything they ask for; if you run a kebab shop – hand out free kebabs to any and every female – you literally cannot afford to upset any of them any longer, not unless you are a rich celebrity.
Because if you are just an ordinary man, and you want to clear your name because you’re not a ‘nonce’ – then I don’t see how you are going to be able to. This is no idle threat – I’m getting reports of case papers being returned to clients as we speak….
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November 12, 2013 at 20:23 -
Hi Anna thank you for a brilliant article. My husband is in the unenviable position of being falsely accused it is a truly horrendous long drawn out process. After the liar made her statement to police it took a further two weeks to question my husband, as it was a complete fantasy we had no idea what she had alleged prior to this interview. After a couple of months (the investigation stalled a number of times due to police annual leave) it was passed to the CPS. I noticed in all the high profile cases the CPS used this to great effect announcing either charges or NFA within a few days/week at most to give the public the impression they are so efficient. In the real world it takes many months we are still waiting.
I would like to take issue with one point regarding the cost of defending cases, after much research I believe it is possible to instruct a solicitor/barrister that specialises in these cases with a proven track record for around £40 – 50,000 which is still a huge amount for the average person but infinitely more affordable than £250000. I can’t imagine what DLT’s legal bill will be given that he has several accusers and his trial is expected to last around a month, hence the house sale.
I would also like to mention that even if there is an acquitall and you have young children, the SS do not consider the case closed and will do their own assessment as they have a different burden of proof. So after the trauma of an investigation and trial which takes a minimum of 12 months, longer in many cases, families are still separated and unable to pick up the threads of their shattered lives.
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November 12, 2013 at 20:33 -
FA – It is the ‘Very High Cost Cases’ – which are defined as those expected to last 60 days or so, where there are multiple accusers which are particularly at risk of this cost cutting exercise – the sort of cases where someone has a public profile and the police have ‘trawled’ for additional complainants, as do, miraculously, come forward where the person accused is sufficiently famous that people remember him/her from 40 years ago.
Those cases do cost circa 250,000 to defend – and just because someone was famous 40 years ago, doesn’t automatically mean they have 250,000 kicking around in loose change……-
November 12, 2013 at 21:42 -
I totally appreciate that. I’m sure I read that Michael Le Vell’s legal bill was around the £250 000 mark which I thought was an incredible amount for a trial that lasted around a week. Having said that I don’t believe anything I read in the newspapers anymore.
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November 11, 2013 at 15:52 -
Re: “My advice would be make absolutely sure you never, ever, upset the step-daughter; give those schoolgirls everything they ask for; if you run a kebab shop – hand out free kebabs to any and every female – you literally cannot afford to upset any of them any longer, not unless you are a rich celebrity”
And then get accused of being a ‘perv’ or ‘grooming’ for doing that too?
Seems the only solution is to have as little contact as possible and NEVER be on your own with or near them and always make sure you’ve got an alibi and can account for all your where abouts at all times – the world is mad.
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November 11, 2013 at 16:27 -
“And then get accused of being a ‘perv’ or ‘grooming’ for doing that too?”
See Moor Larkin’s previous link – the BBC have now decreed that employees must go a round in pairs so that one of them can always vouch for the other in case a child makes allegations…..
That day is here already….!
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November 11, 2013 at 16:37 -
“the BBC have now decreed that employees must go a round in pairs so that one of them can always vouch for the other in case a child makes allegations”
Given that much of the motivation behind the Savile Revelations seems to go back to the idea that there are paedo-rings amongst the British elites, this all seems rather a circularity anyway. The boy-scout and Penny are just two of the Savile cases that spring to my mind where Savile and “an unknown man” together performed their abuse. In fact, when it all began Penny said she wasn’t too bothered about Jimmy but it was the “other man” she feared most as he raped her by force rather than by grooming. Similarly the boy-scout ended up with a tale whereby another man was punching him on the head and Jimmy “saved” him.
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November 11, 2013 at 18:49 -
Moor Larkin,
Re: “Given that much of the motivation behind the Savile Revelations seems to go back to the idea that there are paedo-rings amongst the British elites, this all seems rather a circularity anyway”
These ‘chaperones’ will have to be specially appointed by social serves or something and be screened and vetted and made sure that they have absolutely no connection with each other or the person they are ‘chaperoning’.
It seems mad that it has come to this, but I honestly don’t blame them, what other option do they have in this climate? What next though? Will the doctor need a couple of ‘chaperones’? I think i’d want them in that environment…
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November 11, 2013 at 19:00 -
These ‘chaperones’ will have to be specially appointed by social serves or something and be screened
Seems to me that most of the most historically famous paedo-scandals are based in social-care set-ups – the Welsh care-homes, Kincora etc etc. – or were based in school environments and involved Freemasons and such-like so maybe best to wear a camera like Soldier C I imagine. I must get a copy of that old Lee Evans movie.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeze_Frame_(2004_film)
Before the film ends, Sean makes a list of things to remember: Who to trust, how to be careful, how to be a step ahead, and how to prove one’s innocence, namely himself. He must never stop filming himself, because being off camera is “like being off guard.”-
November 11, 2013 at 19:48 -
Moor Larkin,
Re: “Seems to me that most of the most historically famous paedo-scandals are based in social-care set-ups – the Welsh care-homes, Kincora etc etc. –or were based in school environments and involved Freemasons and such-like so maybe best to wear a camera”
It might work best if the ‘chaperones’ are constantly rotated so they don’t have a chance to form a familiarity with each other or the person they are ‘chaperoning’ so are far less likely to be in ‘cahoots’ or feel a need to ‘vouch’ or ‘cover’ for each other?
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November 10, 2013 at 10:56 -
Annoying adverts on TV and radio trawl for no win no fee agreements. Some are elaborate cartoons with well known voice overs. The cost of these adverts must be considerable. Indicating how lucrative the capitulation by paying up to avoid an unaffordable fight has become. No win no fee has become an industry to feed most of the proceeds to lawyers and throw the leavings to deserving and undeserving alike. No use telling me about poor lawyers. I once worked with a newly fledged barrister who was escorted to a charity shop to try on black tie gear for his dinner. Alterations were done by a lady I worked with. He was on benefits! A writ landing through your letter box alleging some fault or other, is now a form of extortion, saying ‘admit it and pay up’ or else. Why has the state supported this…..so legal aid can be reduced I suppose?. Money is being leached away from where it SHOULD be spent. On more doctors and nurses to make giving birth the total perfection seemingly sought by our modern mums. Their ancestors were not so fortunate. The paedo aspect is a lucrative corner to exploit. Even the dead can be made to pay now, and good charities robbed in the process.
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November 10, 2013 at 12:07 -
“”Many other countries such as the USA and Australia were forced to tackle the problem of unsustainably high compensation awards in the face of a compensation crisis. As illustrated by the figure of £1.2 billion from the NHS LA, awards are getting higher and higher and we should not wait for a crisis. We need legal reform now.””
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/nhs-pays-out-record-12bn-claims-7906079.html
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November 10, 2013 at 03:09 -
November 9, 2013 at 20:33 -
I agree with the earlier comment about two tier justice, those who can pay for high quality counsel generally being acquitted due, in no small part, to the underpaid inadequate CPS counsel’s ineffective prosecution. I understand that now the CPS employ their own in-house advocates. If you pay peanuts you get monkeys! Which conveniently leads to my next point – the adversarial nature of the judicial system. A court is not convened to determine what happened, it’s function is to determine did this person do what he is accused of doing. Justice is secondary in this game played to a set of arbitrary rules and where the more money spent, the better the dream team, the greater the chances for the truth to be obscured. An inquisitorial form of trial may serve the interests of justice better.
And as a final observation – it seems somewhat hypocritical of Michael Mansfield to be opening a “low cost” chambers. He was happy to suckle at the teat of the golden calf for as long the milk flowed, I can’t imagine that it’s going to impact too heavily on his pocket now that legal aid is drying up. I’d have greater respect if he disappeared quietly to spend the rest of his working life taking pro bono cases.
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November 9, 2013 at 20:50 -
Should lawyers be paid the value of their labour? Even Marx believed a worker had the right to the value of his own labour. It’s hard to see how anyone who believes in autonomy could disagree with that. Are you suggesting that the state has paid Mansfield above the market rate for his? Bashing lawyers doesn’t help. Why should Mansfield work for free? Are you suggesting those at a whom the paedofinder points the should rely on charity for their representation?
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November 9, 2013 at 22:49 -
@ the adversarial nature of the judicial system. A court is not convened to determine what happened, it’s function is to determine did this person do what he is accused of doing. Justice is secondary in this game played to a set of arbitrary rules and where the more money spent, the better the dream team, the greater the chances for the truth to be obscured. An inquisitorial form of trial may serve the interests of justice better. @
A game for lawyers played by lawyers, paid for by the tax-payer. Something had to give sooner or later I guess.
http://www.barcouncil.org.uk/media/203109/srl_guide_final_for_online_use.pdf
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November 9, 2013 at 20:26 -
Moor, lawyering is not a closed shop. It’s probably the best example of a genuine free market out there. Uncorrupted by corporate control. Grayling wants to end that of course and corporatise it. He can’t use the standard excuse for corporatisation (usually mistermed “privatisation”) here (the lie that equates corporatism with the free market) because their already is a market. There is no nationalised law service and a bloody good thing too. The market is fluid and efficient. There are tons of young lawyers out there who can’t get jobs. The problem is that legal aid rates are now so dire that experiened practitioners are very often earning less than the minimum wage. Legal aid simply can’t buy you decent representation in this most efficient of markets.
Mansfield and his earnings are always wheeled out to bash legal aid but he is a typical. All comparitive markets (where getting better service than the opposition is impotant) tend to inflate at te top end. Look at football. Mansfield is an excellent lawyer and he is paid well. He is paid the market rate for his labour and takes no profit. In these circumstances I fail to see how he can be criticised from the left or right.
Keep at it Anna. The pendulum will swing back. It needs pushing. There are only a few prepared to stand up and shove it. We need you, Barbara Hewson (and the handful of others with the balls to resist nonceoggedan) to make the case for elementary rule of law in this area.
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November 9, 2013 at 20:20 -
One day I’ll get round to reading this book:
“Did you really think we want those laws observed?” said Dr. Ferris. “We want them to be broken. You’d better get it straight that it’s not a bunch of boy scouts you’re up against. We’re after power and we mean it. There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that’s the system, Mr. Reardon, that’s the game, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.”
[Ayn Rand: ‘Atlas Shrugged’. 1957] -
November 9, 2013 at 16:13 - xxx
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November 9, 2013 at 10:55 -
I have long been concerned with the standard of care given to criminal defence work in some cases. No, I am not a bleeding heart liberal, but I am aware of cases in which very little preparation has been given to the defence in serious cases. I am lending my assistance to a case in which the man – of good character – has gone down for 20 years for “historic” sex abuse claims by his step children, against a background where his ex wife had a grudge. He says his barrister only got the papers 2 or 3 days before trial. Not sufficient in my opinion.
What is happening in this country is a drift towards a two tier system. Celebs and “high profile” cases get resources heaped upon them by both sides. What, I wonder, is the cost to the state of th6 phone hacking trial? Nobody died. Allow 1,200 people to die in a sub standard hospital and you get a knighthood and a pension. Enter the country intent on setting up a network of terrorist cells and killing as many of our people and values as you can? No problem, have generous legal aid, and sue the Government because someone punched you in Somalia. There will be appeals and lots of interest from Her Majesty’s Judges of every level, who will pore over every aspect of the case with angst ridden concern for ‘Yuman Rights. Maybe get £20k to go away.
But Joe Public facing ruin and a life in prison, that is just chaff, not really worth much effort. What publicity is there in that? What worth are these useless, “ordinary” people. No profile, no interest. no justice.-
November 9, 2013 at 11:32 -
That is a profound comment Gildas, Sir, – and I’ve just had a second e-mail from another man finding himself in the same boat – no solicitor, because there will be no way to fund a decent barrister – and trial date in January.
To be perfectly honest, I am sitting here wondering whether I even have the heart to keep going with the blog – the entire justice system seems to be slowly turning upside down as you say endless money for the human rights case because ‘someone punched you in Somalia’ and they did once have a cup of coffee with someone British so it must be the British fault, yeah?
And no one cares about the ordinary man, not even the other ordinary men – until it happens to them.
It is very reminiscent of the origins of this blog – the mass apathy over the Mental Capacity Act which the media assured everyone was ‘giving power to the vulnerable’ – and I ranted and raved to zero effect of the dangers it posed – and no one took any notice at all, until it started happening to their grandmother, or their son was ‘empowered’ aka deprived of his liberty for a year, and then there were howls of anguish as people said ‘how come a judge can decide whether my son lives or dies’ – but it took five/six years before people woke up – and I’m not sure that I have the energy any longer to wait five/six years for people to wake up to this ‘Savile’ travesty and the pup they are being sold whilst they enjoy the spectacle of the celebrities being locked up.
I’m exhausted actually.-
November 9, 2013 at 12:01 -
I may take up this and other related issues on another day. Safe to say the system is broken for the common man not just on the criminal but also the civil side.
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November 9, 2013 at 13:01 -
If children have a problem, it is society that is at fault. There is no such thing as society. There is a living tapestry of men and women and people and the beauty of that tapestry and the quality of our lives will depend upon how much each of us is prepared to take responsibility for ourselves and each of us prepared to turn round and help by our own efforts those who are unfortunate.”
http://jimcannotfixthis.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/no-such-thing-as-media.html
“And the worst things we have in life, in my view, are where children who are a great privilege and a trust—they are the fundamental great trust, but they do not ask to come into the world, we bring them into the world, they are a miracle, there is nothing like the miracle of life—we have these little innocents and the worst crime in life is when those children, who would naturally have the right to look to their parents for help, for comfort, not only just for the food and shelter but for the time, for the understanding, turn round and not only is that help not forthcoming, but they get either neglect or worse than that, cruelty.”-
November 9, 2013 at 13:25 -
So many egos, so many agenda’s and not one person who ‘can’, willing to oppose the bastards who inflict this suffering on the rest of us !
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November 9, 2013 at 13:39 -
I remarked on the sirjimforum yesterday:
It’s easy to get carried away with wild thoughts, but it suddenly struck me as odd that after all this time, the local police forces have suddenly started coming under increased institutional pressure from the centre…. viz the referring of Officer’s conduct to the IPCC etc.
http://sirjim.freeforums.org/conspiracy-against-local-honest-police-t45.html
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November 9, 2013 at 13:31 -
Jimmy Savile and I were both born on 31 October, though separated by 30 years. Sir James would be 87 this week. While he lived, I must admit, this fact did not give me much fellow feeling with the famous disc jockey, knight and member of the Athenaeum (proposed for membership by Cardinal Hume); but since he has died, I have been distressed that absolutely no one will speak in his defence.
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2013/11/in-life-jimmy-savile-was-excused-everything-in-death-he-is-indiscriminately-condemned/Someone like Moore speaks up – u get a bit of hope that maybe, just maybe, someone who ‘can’ do something, will, and then – THEY DON’T !
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November 9, 2013 at 13:34 -
BTW Anna/folks watch out 4 that ‘track back’ whatever that means at the bottom of the comments – what is it ?
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November 9, 2013 at 17:07 -
Anna, bless you, I’m sure everyone who has a heart will understand what you are saying here. It seems that those who actually DO SOMETHING are so few and far between. that they become worn out and wasted by the apathy of the majority and the cruelty of the rest. What is the answer ? I guess everyone has to make their own decision after all, unless it IS happening to you, it really is not your problem. Someone recently asked me why I bother, what’s IT got to do with you ? I didn’t know how to answer that, I still don’t except to say to myself at least, I do it because I care and because I can, for the time being at least.
Remember that guy who pitched up a tent opp the Palace of Westminster and stayed there for years protesting against the Guilf War (was it ?). Why the hell did he bother …. Big Smiley Face all ….. “Onwards”
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November 9, 2013 at 13:52 -
yes well – the whole – “it isn’t happening to me therefor it isn’t happening” meme is all around.
Economic collapse? – no worries – I still got me X Box
Child abuse in Asia? – no worries – I still got me cheap Nikes
Fukushima? – no worries – it’s only those Nips that’ll get radiated innit?Until it happens to your family/village etc , it might as well not be happening.
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November 9, 2013 at 14:07 -
Another famous saying from another Tory – “Not in my back yard”
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November 9, 2013 at 14:12 -
@Hysteria
What economic collapse? The restaurants are full.
Given that “child abuse” seems grotesquely over-egged in my own corner of the globe, I see no reason to become hysterical about what might be happening in Asia where societies are supposed to be much more cohesive than the “individualistic” west.
Fukushima was a technological disaster that is being fixed by technology. No-one better than the Japanese to do it.-
November 9, 2013 at 18:20 -
Fukushima is not being fixed by a long shot. A private, for-profit concern, TEPCO, is in charge of the clean up, and they are refusing any international aid, and appear to have no idea what they’re doing. The plant hovers on the edge of a melt-down. Butterflies are showing horrible signs of radiation poisoning, and I would strongly suggest that you avoid all seafood from the Pacific. Here on the west coast of the US we have been strongly warned that if another earthquake occurs near Fukushima then the entire west coast must evacuate immediately – and that’s from Dr. David Suzuki, who generally knows whereof he speaks.
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November 10, 2013 at 15:12 -
David Suzuki is a charlatan. See “Watts up with that” for many references.
Your reference here to his wisdom is a prime example.
Not your fault, I suppose. You’re obviously not a scientist or engineer.
But your small boost to his credibility had to be countered.
Sorry about the OT.
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November 9, 2013 at 02:27 -
The Blocked Dwarf : ” …the self styled “Pederast Funder General” one certain Marcus Williams Fere Tomás de Talkshowmedia…who hath given out many broadsheets and woodcuttings…”
Brilliant!
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November 9, 2013 at 01:23 -
Same here in the US. Better care in prison than in most ‘care homes.’ OAPs get onto this, they’ll be marching into the local cop shop, confessing to heaven knows what, just to get three hots and a cot down at the pokey! And good medical care as well.
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November 9, 2013 at 00:02 -
This happened to a friend of mine – malicious accusations that were blatently untrue and could be proved as such, but he still lost his job and had his photo in the local paper as an abuser. It could happen to anyone, especially now.
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November 8, 2013 at 22:56 -
I worry that legal aid is stopped. I wouldn’t want some junior leading my case if the need arose. I thought it was only civil cases where legal aid had stopped. It’s bad enough that women who petition for divorce and who have no income have no chance of legal aid unless they have been bashed up or mentally tortured. What have we come to?
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November 8, 2013 at 19:28 -
Please read this:
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/L-60680-1935326
They really have got their hands on our money now!
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November 8, 2013 at 18:02 -
Sorry, but Joe the plumber or whatever other ‘ordinary Joe’ you care to pick will just have to take his chances because I am sick of helping to keep mega-rich lawyers in the style to which they have grown accustomed. If I could afford champagne I definitely would have broached a bottle to celebrate the demise of Michael Mansfield’s Tooks Chambers. According to the Telegraph:
“Mr Mansfield said he plans to form his own, low-cost chambers “within the near future”.
“Fifteen barristers from Tooks are expected to join the new set, to be called Mansfield Chambers, which will keep overheads low by employing fewer clerks, sharing desks in cheaper offices and using free computer software.”
And about time, too!
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November 8, 2013 at 18:07 -
Lawyering was about the only closed-shop Maggie never got round to.
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November 8, 2013 at 17:29 -
Quote of the week:- Britain is a red shiny apple that is rotten at the core.
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November 8, 2013 at 17:57 -
Who’d’a thought the Daily Mail had it in them………..
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2480917/Damning-verdict-Thavisha-Peiris-parents-pizza-delivery-murder-Sheffield.html-
November 8, 2013 at 18:07 -
And I note that Claire Ellicot, who door-stepped Margaret Jones (former principal of Duncroft) in a very rude and crude fashion, co-wrote the ‘glossy red apple’ piece. Well, she should know. She’s in it up to her shell-like ears.
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November 8, 2013 at 18:18 -
Probably not the sort of rottenness the Guardian might have been hoping for however:
“Shamraze Khan, 25, of Sheffield, and a 17-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, are both due to appear at Sheffield magistrates court on Saturday morning.”
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/nov/02/two-charged-pizza-delivery-murder
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November 8, 2013 at 16:53 -
I made a post on Facebook yesterday regarding the death of Bijan Ibrahimi, expressing my surprise that the press had not attempted to tie him in to Jimmy Savile (being sarcastic) and was then informed by a poster that I shouldn’t publicize my sentiments that I believed Savile was perhaps innocent, and how safe England was, now that ‘victims’ can come forward and be believed and so on. Not one word expressing any regret for this horrible event, just praising Operation Yewtree for taking ‘many perpetrators’ to court. Did I miss something? Many? Stuart Hall, Michael Le Vell (innocent), and …? This is how the British public delude themselves, turn their back, stick their fingers in their ears and yell “I can’t HEAR you!” like a bunch of brats. As long as it isn’t happening to them personally, I guess it isn’t happening at all.
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November 8, 2013 at 17:02 -
We don’t call them the *silent* majority without good reason Sally……………
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November 9, 2013 at 01:20 -
I hope the FB friend will come over and read some of Anna’s Duncroft posts at the very least, as well as Moor’s exacting work. I don’t count her as a person who is sticking her fingers in her ears, btw, that’s for others who simply don’t want to know, no matter what. This person is an educator, but because the press and other media have steadfastly refused to present any point of view but their own, people who might at least benefit from seeing both sides of the pancake are robbed of that opportunity, except via blogs.
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November 8, 2013 at 15:58 -
Another excellent article & one which speaks for me in the concerns & anxieties expressed.
One niggle, though. Surely the problem is with the underlying system rather than the amount of money given to legal aid by taxpayers. I would prefer that attention was given to the disease instead of the symptoms.
DD.
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November 8, 2013 at 17:00 -
Lawyers ability to get too much money too easily possibly lies at the back of much of what ails our judicial system. Only today the newspapers are leading on the fact that our errant Mohammed Ahmed Mohammed pet maybe-terrorist has not only done a runner in his burkha, but his lawyers are suing the British for £1M and this will continue whilst he is on the lamm. His lawyers? How can this guy afford lawyers? And so the serpent consumes and renews.
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November 8, 2013 at 15:01 -
“Have I told ye Good Neighbour Proctor was an heretic, as he doth not attend church– and that he is an enchanter?”
“Yes, Abigail, you have told us this, and it matters not, as Good Neighbour Proctor hath freedom of conscience to believe how he will– and in all honesty, no-one doth believe any of that ‘enchanter’ nonsense any more– ’twas superstition, pure and simple, got us in a tizzy and did claim the life of innocent women of this parish, whose blood is a stain upon our hands we may never be cleansed of.”
“Oh, and did I also tell ye Good Neighbour Proctor did rub his male member upon my fundament, as I bent over to retrieve something which I had dropped?’
“Do tell, Abigail! We have much more interest in the concealed lasciviousness and lechery of the so-called ‘good men’ of this parish than in any religious differences or any behaviour liable to be interpreted as that discredited claim of ‘sorcery’!”
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November 8, 2013 at 17:50 -
It should be noted that the Salem Parish Council then went on to engage the services of ‘Alternative Belief Systems Sensitivity Trainer’ from WickerWall (The Wiccan AntiDefamation League) for many ducats annually and also decided to make the village school teachers demonstrate awareness of ‘Reversal Morality Faiths’.
Goodman Proctor, despite his 80 summers, was put to the test by a former member of the Parish Constabulary, the self styled “Pederast Funder General” one certain Marcus Williams Fere Tomás de Talkshowmedia…who hath given out many broadsheets and woodcuttings…
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November 9, 2013 at 00:35 -
Abigail, for her part, received a judgment of thousands of pounds, Mr Proctor’s farmstead being forfeit upon his conviction, and sold to pay it.
Abigail later took teh money and ran, as she moved to Philadelphia, a city which had just been founded, and she bought properties on Market Street which soared in price as the city grew, and she became a much sought-after young lady for the purpose of offers of marriage, due to her sizable rental income– offers for which she repeatedly declined. (It was rumoured in many circles that Abigail was, in fact, a “Sister of Sappho.”)
Several years later, interviewed by the young enterprising editor and publisher of the local fishwrap the Pennsylvania Gazette, one Benjamin Franklin, who had procured her exclusive tell-all story, Abigail lamented how, after her brutalization at the hands of Mr Proctor and the judges in Salem, she could no longer trust any man fully, and this accounted for why she never married, rich woman though she was and could have had her pick of the litter– the fact that she would have needed to share her wealth with some young man whom the local Puritan divines in Philly would scarcely have approved of (nor even the Quakers either, for that matter) since respectable gentlemen did not marry nouveau riche women, had never entered her mind.
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November 9, 2013 at 08:52 -
I see that Marcus Williams Fere Tomás de Talkshowmedia is now mtwatting his broadsheets in front of the sign of New Scotland Yardish, presumably awaiting completion of the New Savile Police Croft for Those of Few Working Neurons…
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November 8, 2013 at 13:35 -
There are now several web/blogs up and running challenging this affront to decency and Justice – there is also a free forum set up by ‘Johnny Timeless’ for folk to pop in a leave a comment anonymously if they want …. between the lot of us, we are getting the message out – Onwards !
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November 8, 2013 at 13:19 -
‘Justice For Jimmy’ really is Justice For all ! How disgusting that Liz Dux gets a prime time slot on a BBC TV prog to bolster the argument for mandatory Reporting ….. who gains from this and who loses – and WHY was this programme even allowed to be aired in the middle of a countrywide investigation into claims that JS abused hospital patients – I sat through this crap >once to report the transcript :
http://rabbitaway.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/after-savile-no-more-tears-enough-is.html
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November 9, 2013 at 16:12 -
I hate that woman.
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November 8, 2013 at 13:05 -
“… he is very charitable in his own right, supporting a number of organisations, including the Royal Marsden Hospital, the Epilepsy Society, a number of children’s causes and a prostate cancer charity. He also vets anyone who comes to him asking for help to give money away. When people approach us we do very thorough checks on them……… We explained to the charity that this was the situation, that they could accept the money but there was a very good chance this individual would at some point be internationally disgraced.”
http://www.charityinsight.com/features/leadership/the-big-interview-max-clifford_28_07_2011 -
November 8, 2013 at 12:18 -
I just raised this matter over on KoH, as it ‘appens.
“..And Bankrupcy For All” -
November 8, 2013 at 12:16 -
Whatever happened to the right granted in Magna Carta 1215 “..to no one will we sell , to no one deny or delay right or justice…”?
Justice is once again a thing only the wealthy can enjoy.
Marvelous.
CR.
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November 8, 2013 at 12:11 -
Good news for the journalists though.
https://davidhencke.wordpress.com/2013/09/16/revealed-how-the-explosion-in-convicted-sex-offenders-has-sparked-a-crisis-in-our-jails/“Britain’s jails are being engulfed by a tidal wave of elderly offenders – and a huge proportion are historic child abuse and sex offenders like Stuart Hall.
The figures are in fact staggering. At the end of March 2013 there were 6,639 prisoners in England and Wales who were aged between 50 and 59 and there were 3,381 over the age of 60, counting between them for 12 per cent of the prison population. Custodial Convictions have jumped by 45 per cent for the 50-59 age group and by 46 per cent for those over 60 between 2008 and 2012. The report highlights historic sex abuse cases as one of the main causes. It says there has been a 45 per cent increase in convicted people sent to jail between 2002 and 2012. They account for a third of the elderly offenders in jail”-
November 8, 2013 at 12:24 -
“Help The Aged”.. into prison.
Plus, as I’ve mentioned before, it’s a handy asset stripping/wealth redistribution exercise to keep the wheels of capitalism grinding – targeting the generations who “never had it so good” – the majority of your U45′s will have little in their coffers other than negative equity and CCJ’s.
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November 8, 2013 at 14:21 -
maybe they want more old people in prison they tend to be much better behaved than young convicts.
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November 8, 2013 at 14:22 -
Oh dear – looks like the Flower Children generation and those that followed before tits and swearing were no longer allowed on tv are now being seriously hammered for a very different past era! At least they should have safety in numbers in the clink now poor buggers as no doubt they will all be labelled as nonces by the general population…
Isn’t it logical that, were there witnesses or very clear proof of genuine sexual abuse at the time, the majority of said perpetrators would have been charged – at the time? And I don’t mean the sneaky hand-up-your-skirt, breast or ass fondling that virtually every female of the previously-mentioned generations (at least) has experienced more than once and survived with no harm to either their person or psyche. -
November 8, 2013 at 22:51 -
I believe there is a special ‘OAP’ wing as there are so many elderly is prison
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November 8, 2013 at 22:52 -
Actually, maybe the care in prison is better than in a carehome
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November 9, 2013 at 00:11 -
On balance and from everything we read it would say it is definately better.
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November 9, 2013 at 08:40 -
Part of a round-robin of a “petition to David Cameron” rcvd. recently that makes jail look like a good option for these, presumably pensioners currently increasing in number (COW part is off-topic but thought she had a valid point):
Let’s put the pensioners in jail and the criminals in a nursing home. This way the pensioners would have access to showers hobbies and walks. They’d receive unlimited free prescriptions, dental and medical treatment, wheel chairs etc. and they’d receive money instead of paying it out.
They would have constant video monitoring, so they could be helped instantly, if they fell, or needed assistance. Bedding would be washed twice a week, and all clothing would be ironed and returned to them. A guard would check on them every 20 minutes and bring their meals and snacks to their cell. They would have family visits in a suite built for that purpose. They would have access to a library, weight room, spiritual counseling, pool and education. Simple clothing, shoes, slippers, PJ’s and legal aid would be free, on request. Private, secure rooms for all, with an exercise outdoor yard, with gardens. Each senior could have a PC a TV radio and daily phone calls. There would be a board of directors to hear complaints, and the guards would have a code of conduct that would be strictly adhered to.
The criminals would get cold food, be left all alone and unsupervised. Lights off at 8pm, and showers once a week. Live in a tiny room and pay £600.00 per week and have no hope of ever getting out. Think about this – AND – another point of contention:
COWS
Is it just me, or does anyone else find it amazing that during the mad cow epidemic our government could track a single cow, born in Appleby almost three years ago, right to the stall where she slept in the county of Cumbria? And, they even tracked her calves to their stalls. But they are unable to locate 125,000 illegal immigrants wandering around our country. Maybe we should give each of them a cow.
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xxx
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