Peter Reynolds

Up and down the country Chief Constables have been deluged with complaints about local MPs.  Many constituents believe that their MP’s conduct has gone beyond error and misjudgement to the point where the police need to investigate.  There is huge anger and if Harriet Harman’s “Court Of Public Opinion” gets its way then there is to be much humiliation and many prison sentences for miscreant MPs.

The Man For The Job

Chief Constables are accused of sitting on their hands and being in fear of taking on such high profile suspects.  In fact, there is confusion about jurisdiction and about what recourse is open to the public if the police will not take action.

An attempt has already been made to bring a private prosecution against Home Secretary Jacqui Smith.  District Judge Bruce Morgan at Redditch Magistrates Court adjourned the application for a summons and referred the matter to the Metropolitan Police, saying that the applicant could *come back to court” if the Met failed to investigate.

The Association Of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) says that the Met is taking the lead and that jurisdiction for all MPs is likely to be in the Met’s hands as expenses claims are paid out from Parliament and not in the constituencies.

The Met’s current position is still that it’s thinking about it.  It “needs to understand the Parliamentary processes for expenses” as part of its assessment as to whether to launch an investigation.  After its clumsy and inept handling of the Damian Green affair it’s not surprising that discretion should be the better part of its valour but really, it’s a shabby response to what is probably the greatest ever betrayal of public trust.

Perhaps that’s what the problem is.  It all just seems too big, too grand, too important.  In reality, the sordid, self-serving decisions that so many MPs have taken are just as small and pathetic as any shoplifter or petty thief.

What we need here is clarity and courage.  We deserve a police service that can see through the obfuscation, blather and bluff.  If  you look at them in the same way as you would a shoplifter or a petty thief , brush away their pathetic excuses, well, officer, what are you going to do now?

If the police fail to take action, where will the public turn?  The Independent Police Complaints Commission has a very narrow remit.  It can only address questions of police misconduct.  Questions of policy, or the conduct of Chief Constables are a matter for the local police authority and in London, that means the Metropolitan Police Authority, chairman of which is ex-MP, Boris Johnson.  The Association of Police Authorities (APA) is waking up to this fast approaching buck and where it might be stopping.  Let’s hope Boris is too.

Another MP who needs to be locked up.  This time though he doesn’t deserve prison.  He needs a lunatic asylum.

How can a man rape a two year old girl?

I mean the question in both senses.  How, physically, is it possible without vile and serious physical trauma?  How is it possible for any human being with any degree of conscience or decency?

These questions are unanswerable. So is the crime.  No punishment can be sufficient.  A death sentence would be both too forgiving and morally indefensible.  Surely life must mean life?  Perhaps we should consider “hard labour” or some other definition of the way that this man must spend his time in prison?

But of course this is not a man.  This is a sentient being that has behaved at a level beneath a dumb animal.  I doubt that he is “mad” in any sense that we can define.  He is simply bad.  For the full story see here.

Louis Theroux’s recent documentary, “A Place For Paedophiles”, gave an extraordinary insight into Coalinga mental hospital in California where more than 500 paedophiles who have served their sentence have been detained because  they are too dangerous to release.  The BBC has already removed this from the iPlayer so am I happy to direct you elsewhere: (download it here via BitTorrent).

In Coalinga more than 70% of the inmates refuse to participate in the therapy that is their only remote possibility of release.  Otherwise they are destined to spend the rest of their days locked up, even if in relative luxury.  One inmate who was participating in therapy had gone as far as having himself surgically castrated in the hope of release.

Now this may be a way forward.  Why not make surgical castration an option for depraved, out of control monsters such as the one convicted yesterday?  It could be optional, as part of rehabilitation, or in the most serious cases enforced as part of the sentence.  For someone guilty of such appalling crimes I do not see this as any infringement of his rights.

We have now reached the tipping point.  Enough is enough.  The disgraceful oppression at the Gaza demonstration in Kensington, Ian Tomlinson’s death, the six-foot plus thug who beats five-foot minus women, the deliberate disguise of identity, the arrogant invasion of the mother of parliaments, the Stasi-like investigation of Damian Green extending to Shami Chakrabati.  Stop Police!

I respect the challenge and difficulty of the job you do and the vital necessity of your role.  There will always be more good policemen than bad but, yet again, you are losing our trust.  Now is the time to stop, sort out the bad apples and start afresh before the problem becomes systemic.  There is a failure of command and leadership as well so I expect some policemen to go to prison, some policemen to be sacked, some required to resign and some to be disciplined.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tees/7520803.stm

What utterly absurd sentences for Mr and Mrs Darwin!  When there are violent thugs loose on the streets, this is the sort of idiocy that brings the law into disrepute.  The judge has made himself look an utter fool and has done nothing at all in the cause of justice.  Clearly these two people were dishonest but the greatest harm they perpetrated was on their sons.  I have no sympathy for the insurance company at all because, by definition, it is engaged in a process of long term, calculated but legalised fraud.  How many years are the directors and regulators of Equitable Life looking at?

Prison is a place for those convicted of violence, not for sad people like the Darwins.  How can the judge live with himself? What rationale can there be for this?  I hope he has no connection with the insurance industry.  He should have no further role in the judicial system.