Nigel Evans is fully entitled to the presumption of innocence; and the media seem more inclined to give it to him than they did to Malcolm Blackman, linked to Anonymous. In this particularly disgusting piece of journalism by Paul Cheston of the Evening Standard, the vicious liar who brought false accusations against Blackman is referred to as “the victim” – not even the alleged victim, but “the victim” – even after Blackman was found not guilty.
The victim, who cannot be named, had lived at home in south London during the week, and slept in the Occupy tent at weekends.
Having been at the Occupy site, where every tent touched at least three others, the idea that repeated rape could be carried out amongst a packed group of people who were particularly certain not to condone it, was always highly implausible. Compelling evidence was given in court that Blackman was not even at the site on one of the two named occasions.
It is particularly sickening that Blackman’s name and photograph has been published everywhere in relation to horrifying and untrue accusations of binding someone against their will with cable ties and raping them. This terrible publicity will follow him everywhere for the rest of his life. The deranged or malicious person who fabricated this story in court continues to have their identity protected.
Blackman’s role within both Anonymous and Occupy has been exaggerated by the media. He was nonetheless associated with the internet and street resistance to the increasingly authoritarian state. The parallels to the Assange case are inescapable.
Returning to Nigel Evans, on the Jeremy Thorpe precedent there is no reason for him to resign his seat before a trial, presuming that he maintains his innocence. Should he resign, this could be one of those small historical chances that has great effects. UKIP will have a great chance of winning Ribble Valley, and the resulting momentum could contribute to a genuine political convulsion in the UK.
Nigel Farage and I were due to have lunch a couple of years ago, but couldn’t get our diaries to match up at the time. Unfortunately, while admiring UKIP’s insurgent spirit, I find myself the polar opposite of their major policies. Distrust and dislike of the political establishment that has failed this country and allowed inconceivable amounts of wealth to be creamed off by the heads of the financial services industry, while ordinary people struggle to get any work at all, is perfectly understandable. The three main parties in England all retail the same neo-con policies, with different packaging. It is inevitable this system must break. That is should break in the direction of right wing populism, is perhaps predictable. But there are worse people than Mr Farage inside all the main parties.
I remain entirely confident that the UKIP surge in England will convince a great many more people in Scotland that they need to break free of the United Kingdom.
Sorry, you have a party which is supported by the EDL leader, which forces a member to resign if they don’t join the lunatic coalition of the far-right in the EU, whose leader is openly angling to replace the BNP, and the main problem, and the only comment in return, is about its attitude to Israel?
and this
Join us, and help defy the ‘lunatics’ within our ranks, say Ukip activists
By Marcus Dysch, May 3, 2013
http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/106893/join-us-and-help-defy-lunatics%E2%80%99-within-our-ranks-say-ukip-activists
Still, thanks for clarification, April Showers – it is quite telling.
This UKIP member is quite proud to be an “Unabashed neocon”
https://twitter.com/JCampbellUKIP
Quite a motley crew.
In my innocence I’d always thought the European superstate was part of the neocon agenda.
re media coverage and rape (and other crime) allegations Helena Kennedy was worthwhile in her cautionary comments on Radio 4 BROADCASTING HOUSE programme this morning. Something surprising to some extent is that SHAMI CHAKRABATI of LIBERTY is contributing pages of pro media criminal accusations coverage before trial conclusion in the DAILY MAIL in the name of democracy etc etc. So too is JOHN KAMPFNER and yet the MAIL is hardly the most democratic libertarion FLEET STREET rag and never has been – indeed far from it. For SHAMI to jump into bed with the MAIL beggars belief. I thought there were countries where accused persons are not named re alleged crimes until they are acutally convicted but one never reads any detailed arguementation in which these particular countries are actually identified. If anyone knows which they are it would be interesting to get the details.
April Showers (formerly “Mary”) says at 14h34 :
“Doug Scorgie I see that you never had a response to your question asking for evidence for a sweeping statement that there is mass fraud in the postal voting in constituencies with high incidences of people from the Indian sub-continent.”
———–
I presume that this is a side-swipe at me. But as usual for April/Mary, she’s not adverse to twisting the evidence a little. Let’s establish the facts :
1/. Craig Murray, in a comment on the thread ‘We earned them votes tonight in South Shields’, said that “..in Blackburn the postal ballot manufacture hinges very much on a particular ethnic community”.
I note that you didn’t post to disagree with that statement.
2/. Agreeing with him, I added :”..this {problem} certainly exists and if anything you probably underestimate the scale of the problem”.
3/. In your post, reproduced above, you imply that I claimed there was “mass fraud”. I never used the expression “mass fraud”.
If I were to use Mark Golding’s inflated phraseology, I’d probably call you a shameless hussy. But since I prefer to stay polite and sober, I’ll content myself with this :
(1) you are a liar (because you invented a supposed comment from me), and
(2) you are a coward (because you were careful not to criticise Craig’s post).
I’ve long since assumed that Liberty, like Amnesty and HRW, have been co-opted by our neocon chums.
Were that not the case, Shami should have been ousted long ago.
She’s presided over the greatest loss of civil liberties in the history of Britain – A monumental failure, unless that’s the point of the enterprise.
I would agree with you Herbie, that the EU from its earliest origin as a combination of French and German steel and coal industrialists and monopolists, created at the urging of the US as an economic and social integrationist partner to the militaristic NATO, was never intended to have any truck with wooly-headed notions of democracy and people’s just rights, such being superficial adjuncts, with shallow roots, added on as it expanded and consolidated its control over western Europe, but aren’t found in its inner marrow. It was also a fragrant luscious carrot to dangle before the eastern-European people behind the iron-curtain, an instrument of cold-war propaganda, such heady freedoms, which moved swiftly towards turning itself into a new economic superpower, lest it should lack any further purpose, swallowing all its constituent countries and with the fall of that iron curtain hungry for more gullible takers of its stinky bait. The cunning Common Market idea, purporting to deliver all the benefits any nation state or people could ever want, the chance to trade unhindered their surplus goods and specialities freely and fairly, opened the door to its unwitting acceptance by so many. Big is vulnerable, a central point through which all of Europe may be manipulated without dealing with myriad different countries peoples, traditions and cultures, a single over-loaded brain in a blundering sloth-like body.
Mary/April Showers
5 May, 2013 – 8:06 pm
Almost as if to prove my point…
https://en-gb.facebook.com/FOPinUKIP
You’ve really got to get Israel out of your head for a while, Mary. It clouds your judgment on all manner of things.
The whole tone of the article is designed to lead the reader to assume that Blackman “got away with it.” The sordid episode sounds more like “a woman scorned” story than anything else but you can never know because of the anonymity afforded to the alleged victim.
The jury of 9 women and 3 men didn’t believe the evidence offered by the prosecution so why did the case go to court one might ask?
Two reasons spring to mind:
(1) The whole issue of rape and sexual assaults has been politicised because of allegations that the police and prosecution services haven’t taken such cases seriously enough in the past, a charge I believe to be true. However; in the wake of Jimmy Savile and other incidents, the media now highlight and sensationalise all and any allegations of sexual crime thus pressurising the police to make a case “that sticks” and the prosecution service to go to court with a poor case and hope for the best.
(2) Then there is the possibility of entrapment by agent provocateur. After all Blackman is described as the founder of Anonymous UK and a leading anarchist campaigner. (See the Times link below).
From the Times:
“The woman, who gave evidence from behind an anonymity screen at the Old Bailey in Central London, claimed she had been attacked twice while she slept.”
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/crime/article3754656.ece
This has a familiar ring does it not, in regard to the Julian Assange accusations?
Technicolour, I won’t answer you as long as you misrepresent my views, so your imagination is free to do what it likes, eg 8:02pm.
Well, Giles, I’m not sure how asking questions is misrepresenting your views, but perhaps I’m caring too much about your views. For the record:
1. Why is Tottenham representative of ‘what has become of your (sic) country?
2. Why do you single out people from certain races for your opprobrium and not others?
It is hard to believe that any “Friends of Israel” are opposed to immigration.
A worrying aspect about the success of UKIP is that the Tories, in desperation to win the next election, will be forced to the right to win back voters; the Labour party will feel obliged to also move to the right to outdo the Tories: a political “arms race” will be set in motion.
You ought to watch the clips of zionists kicking the crap out of black Jews in zionistan. Racists will always find their own kind, and stick together. Alas it shows the extent of breakdown and collapse of our society, that the only alternative forward is even more racism and divisive politics.
Yeah, but look on the bright side, Doug, at least Scotland’s more likely to become independent, while the rest of the UK get to deal with the resultant and exciting ‘political convulsion’. And closeted people everywhere will be able to start saying ‘I object to melanin and I’m one of the tolerant ones! Stop everyone who’s not rich already from coming in, and bugger the NHS, double the defence budget – you never know – institute boot camps, scrap the Human Rights Act, scapegoat Somalis and anyone else whose family once lived somewhere which has bananas, and sun, and call me a bleeding heart liberal while you’re at it. I’m proud!’.
As usual the Mash has it:
http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/politics/politics-headlines/tories-not-sufficiently-unhinged-concedes-cameron-2013050367589
“Nobody can be more critical of Israel than I, but that should not be confused with Jewish people generally, whose contribution to the world of science, medicine and literature has been immense and beneficial.”
The Jewish State should not be confused with the Jewish people, it has nothing to do with them. Jews are good people, like Craig said.
Technicolour, you are trying to paint me as racist. Your life clearly thrives on ascribing racist views to others in order to feel better about yourself and/or advance yourself. To point out again what ought to be obvious, my post of last year was a reaction to claims made here that anyone who takes an opposing view on mass-immigration must be a victim of Daily Mail propaganda, ie we can’t see for ourselves, it is all an invention of the right-wing media.
@ Giles :
I like your posts but wish to warn you that if keep on like that you’ll be called a troll before you know what’s hit you. But carry on the good work!
BTW, it was I and no-one else who first mentioned cleaner seawaters off Blackpool (=no more face-to-faces with turds while swimming) as an example of beneficial action by the EU. The point I tried to make at the time was that the UK had had ages to do something about sewage outflows into the marine environment but did nothing until forced to by the EU bathing waters directive (and if I remember properly the UK was one of the more reticent delegations during the negotiations on the said directive). Of course it’s an example which it’s easy (but cheap) to make fun off, to which I’d say it’s only one example of many wherre the UK had been forced by the EU to go in directions which most people would regard as beneficial to citizens.
No, Giles, I’m quoting your own words and asking you to explain them. To repeat:
1. Why is Tottenham representative of ‘what has become of your (sic) country?
It’s quite simple, really. You even repeated the same words, above. If you don’t know the answer, and were just – I don’t know – being silly, then just say so.
Techno
5 May, 2013 – 12:42 pm
“Evans has said that the two people who have made these allegations were his friends and he socialised with one of them last week.”
“It is very odd. What is the motive here? Is it just a couple of twisted gays who enjoy the thrill of bringing down a powerful person? Or is there a bigger motive? I struggle to believe that it is a plot by UKIP to win Ribble Valley. UKIP simply aren’t organised enough, cynical enough or forward thinking enough to have pulled that off.”
Techno, I agree this is not a plot by UKIP.
Three thing spring to mind:
(1) The accusations are true.
(2) The accusations are not true and we have the equivalent of “the woman scorned” story.
(3) The allegations are not true and it is an MI5 set-up for some, as yet unknown, reason.
Where does this view come from that Scotland will be some left-wing paradise if/once it gains independence?
I for one welcome the bee-ban, having been stung once when poking a wasps’ bike in a shrubbery.
(I know it’s bee-killing pesticide). As the ban doesn’t come into operation till Decmeber, farmers and bee-haters are probably stock-piling decades worth of the stuff in advance, and as NFU spokepersons have hinted, can and will buy it unhindered from outside the EU.
Isn’t it funny how the, state, TPTB, the media, can always pull another sex-scandal (allegedly) out of their hats, to drown out other news such as the Israeli bombing of Muslim religious shrines and possibly a passenger plane on the ground packed with departing refugees.
There are Friends of Palestine in the other parties. If there is a LD Friends of Palestine, did they give any support to Jenny Tongue or David Ward who made supportive remarks for the Palestine cause? The Israel lobby went to town on both of them. Mr Ward was ordered to take corrective treatment under supervision and to mend his ways.
http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/102940/david-ward-needs-immediate-discipline-lib-dem-friends-israel-tell-clegg
http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/102847/clegg-orders-david-ward-meet-lib-dem-friends-israel
Work out who has the most power in the LDs, the FOP or the FOI?
~~~~
I trust the new archbishop will enjoy his visit to Israel in June.
A letter was sent to him thus:
http://epfnational.org/PIN/letter-to-archbishop-welby-over-remarks-in-the-newspaper-jewish-news/
The contents of this page on this rather fanatical site might interest some here.
http://daphneanson.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/a-good-start-on-israel-from-archbishop.html
There is also an earlier attack on the Rev Stephen Sizer.
Technicolour, I really don’t know what you’re getting at, but places such as Tooting, Tottenham, and Totton, just to deal with the ones beginning with “to-“, are not really English anymore.
Lord Palmerston
5 May, 2013 – 1:00 pm
Craig (and anyone who wants to answer), do you ever wonder whether
there is a tension between these two things?
(a) the awful crimes and failing of goverment that you (correctly)
point out
(b) your firm upholding of Democracy
Since (b) has brought about (a) I would have thought that, by now,
thinking people would notice that democracy isn’t such a great idea
after all.
Mr Palmerston your premises are weak and your conclusion a non-sequitur.
And you cannot say logically that “(b) has brought about (a)”.
Back to logic 101!
Why would I disagree with what Craig says about his Blackburn experiences when he stood for election? He was there and knows what he is talking about. It was the smearing of people from the Indian sub continent in the RI’s post that was objectionable and about which he/she did not answer the questioner. I see the opportunity was taken to direct more insults at me. Sticks and stones etc.
This paper from the HoC library might shed some light into the facts of the matter. I have not read it yet.
Postal Voting & Electoral Fraud
Standard Note:SN/PC/3667
Last updated:22 June 2011
Author:Isobel White and Charley Coleman
SectionParliament and Constitution Centre
http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons/lib/research/briefings/snpc-03667.pdf
Mary, you’ve simply got to get Israel out of your head for a while! There is a pro-Israel faction within UKIP, and a pro-Palestine faction. Certainly the UKIP supporters I know, one of whom stood for election, are completely pro-Palestine.
The fact is UKIP is still a small and not very well organized party. You should welcome the array of opinions and lack of a party line. In the meantime, may I suggest another cause that does not involve the West or Western backing, or don’t you do that?
Mary, I must ask on further thing. Have any of your tens of thousands of posts made one iota of difference to the suffering of any one single oppressed person?
Habbabkuk (La vita è bella)
5 May, 2013 – 2:20 pm
“…I’ve probably missed something.”
Yes you have.