Bel is thinking

Human rights lawyer Gareth Peirce on Sky News today. That can only mean one thing, a terror suspect is bringing a law suit for one thing or another.

And sure enough, it was Abu Qatada, appealing unsuccessfully against a deportation order.

Why is it that people like that who hate the western way of life so much will fight tooth and nail to stay here? I would have thought he would be cock-a-hoop at the prospect of being returned to Jordan. But no. He is worried that he faces torture or death if deported. So now he turns for deliverance to the courts system of the country so despised by him and his ilk.

Unfortunately for him, the Special Immigration Appeals Commission was not swayed by his protestations, and barring any further legal moves, Abu Qatada should be on a plane home some time soon.

On your way now, Abu Qatada. You will have a good time far away from the contaminating influences of western society. Keep yourself ‘pure’, and if ever you feel tempted to return here, you must do your utmost to resist.

So Gary Glitter will be out of jail sometime in the next 18 months.

For someone who was reportedly facing the death penalty at one stage, he should consider himself very fortunate.

To which country will he be heading on release, I wonder.

An interview with David Cameron in the Daily Telegraph. I couldn’t be bothered to read it, but one sentence stood out:

“People are really beginning to feel that this government is like a house with a door that’s rotting and they want to boot it off its hinges.”

Is this really what David Cameron would do if he encountered a rotting door hanging off its hinges? Does he think that this is the natural thing to do in such circumstances? I know we live in ASBO times, but even a cynic such as myself would hesitate before assuming that our nation’s yobs would always act in such a fashion.

Perhaps politics brings out the violent streak in all of us, even in a seemingly mild-mannered man like Dave. It certainly puts Prescott’s pugilistic exploits into context.

According to the Daily Mail, the target was the Capita office. If that is the case, I suggest it would be hard to find the culprits. There are as many possible suspects as there are motives. Capita is involved in the congestion charge, collection of council tax arrears, failed taxpayer-funded IT projects (eg the Criminal Records Bureau), and much, much more.

Bound to be lots of aggrieved folk about.

The police are accusing the Government of leaking operational details of the alleged ‘beheading plot’ in an attempt to divert attention from Tony Blair’s current troubles with the law.

I must say I did wonder, when, for examples, details emerged in the papers about how the police used two muslim soldiers to lure the alleged kidnappers. I wondered what the police were hoping to gain by releasing such sensitive information to the public. Were they hoping to scupper any future trial, or what?

Turns out the police may not have leaked the information after all. Sources close to the investigation are pointing the finger at the Government. Given the latter’s past record on this sort of behaviour, I am inclined to believe the police.

I fully expect a denial from the Government, but that doesn’t count for much these days.

Just watched Michael White of the Guardian being interviewed by Sky News. He was doing his best to downplay the significance of the police interviewing Tony Blair for the second time. Surely even a Blair apologist can see that this is unprecedented? For all the talk of the Tories and sleaze ten years ago, not one single policeman ever went to Downing Street to question John Major. In fact, it is ludicrous to imagine John Major being involved in anything questionable while he was Prime Minister. Not so Blair.

No telling Michael White, though. There are none so blind as those who will not see.

I’ve been following the trial of the six suspected 21 July bombers. I must say, I am impressed by the amount and quality of CCTV evidence available. So much of the evidence is being backed up by CCTV footage. They even have CCTV footage from within the affected carriages. That must have been very helpful to the police.

A pity then, that there appeared to be no such CCTV footage for the carriage in which Jean Charles de Menezes was shot, not even the platform. Bad luck, perhaps?

It seems that the Government really does not care whether or not we are all raped or murdered in our beds:

Twenty-five Britons convicted of rapes abroad may have been cleared to work with children and other vulnerable people because of a Home Office blunder, it emerged today. … More than 27,500 case files - including those for paedophiles and murderers - may have slipped through the net before the situation was rectified last May, according to the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo). (From the Telegraph)

Hilarious, if it weren’t so terrifying.

Police have refused to issue ‘wanted’ posters of two escaped murderers, claiming that doing so might breach their human rights.

Apparently, the public have ‘no right’ to know what these men look like. Interesting, that. In these days when we cannot even rely on the police to protect us from violent criminals, the very least the police can do is enable us to protect ourselves. They should tell us what these men look like, so that we can cross the road if we see them out on the town.

Police internal guidance states that issuing posters should only be done in ‘exceptional circumstances’, such as where the person is believed to be a danger to the public. Call me a mistrustful old soul, but I would have thought that an escaped murderer should immediately be classed a ‘danger to the public’. How do the police assess this ‘danger’? Does it depend on how many murders an offender has committed, the nature of the killings, what exactly?

I understand that the murderers’ ‘rights’ are one factor in many that the police take into consideration. My question to the police is this: what more must a convicted murderer who has absconded from jail do before they deem him to have forfeited his ‘rights’?

UPDATE: The photographs have now been released. Has someone had a word with the police, I wonder.

Remember the Bishop who was mugged? Apparently no such thing happened. Turns out he bumped into something while drunk.

He claims not to remember a thing, though. Smart move.

Maybe my faith in the nation’s criminals is now restored. No-one would really mug a bishop, right?