Don't know nuffink - by Richard... Sunday, April 24, 2011

Don't know nuffink - by Richard... Sunday, April 24, 2011

There was a court case last week, writes Booker, in a place he is not allowed to name, involving people he is not allowed to identify, dealing with an issue he cannot reveal, with an outcome he does not know, because no one there is allowed to tell him, on pain of imprisonment.

It could have something to do with this, but if Booker said so, he might end up in prison. As to what happened, he can only guess – on the basis of his detailed knowledge of what happened earlier – that the case ended in a way which, had he been able to report it, would have deeply shocked his readers. Had it gone otherwise, he would have been free to report it in detail.

Judicial gagging orders have been much publicised of late, adds Booker, thanks to the determined campaign being waged to expose what is wrong with them by John Hemming MP. But almost all the media attention has focused on the power of the courts to suppress reporting on the alleged sexual activities of footballers.

Less notice has been paid to the real purpose of Hemming's campaign: to expose the much worse scandal of the secrecy surrounding our family courts, and the horrible injustices too often inflicted on innocent parents who are treated like criminals without their voices being allowed to be heard.

It is this that Hemming wishes to see exposed to public view, even though the judges are attempting to gag even MPs, by prohibiting aggrieved constituents revealing details to them. This, of course, is a breach of parliamentary privilege, but one on which the Speaker is curiously reluctant to act.

Meanwhile, journalists like Booker are perilously close to being locked up, the terms of more recent orders even prohibiting him or anyone else even carrying out investigations to find out information which is subject to banning orders. However, there is nothing to stop us providing the judges with an important piece of information: we can knit.

COMMENT: SECRECY THREAD

Serious overkill - by Richard... Saturday, April 23, 2011

So good was the police "intelligence" in Bristol last Thursday that they failed to realise that there were only four people in the house they raided.

The four occupants of "Telepathic Heights" also denied they had been manufacturing Molotov cocktails in the squat. "We had no intention of attacking Tesco whatsoever", said Gavin Houghton, 28. "It was never on the cards – we have nothing to do with the anti-Tesco protest. They're a separate group".

Houghton added: "This is a nice building and it would be suicide if we started throwing petrol bombs off the roof. We would never do that. It's not what we're about".

Nevertheless, it took between 30-40 big brave bobbies, all dressed up in their riot togs to subdue this gang of desperadoes. We are so lucky to have such fine public servants, dedicated to the maintenance of law and order.

COMMENT: BRISTOL STOKES CROFT THREAD

The information hub moves on - by Richard...

Parliament is being urged to intervene in the case of a heavily pregnant woman who was threatened with prison for naming her local council during a public meeting in the House of Commons. And that is from John Hemming MP, now in The Independent today.

"With the judges acting to reduce freedom of speech it becomes even more important to protect freedom of speech in Parliament," he says. "Citizens should be allowed to raise problems with MPs. The names of the local authority and the mother have to remain unspoken because of injunctions. But it is my intention to reveal this using parliamentary privilege when Parliament reconvenes next week. People need to know what is being done in their name. The truth must come out".

But Booker did the story last week and the details have already been revealed. The story is about Vicky Haigh and her abducted 7-year-old daughter, Romany, and her name is all over the internet, including on this blog, doing the job the gutless media doesn't do, and MPs still haven't got around to doing. They're wonderful if you want to feast on the royal wedding, but don't expect serious news ... much less intelligent analysis.

But the thing is that, by and large, people don't really care what is being done in their name. Otherwise there would already have been an uproar. But the really interesting thing is that the media and MPs alike still seem to think they still have control over the flow of information. The police and other authorities make the same mistake. And that is why they continually get it wrong. The information hub has moved on, leaving them stranded – and increasingly irrelevant.

COMMENT: SECRECY THREAD

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More reason - by Richard...

... not to buy a Sunday newspaper. Our modern newspaper industry already seems to have lost any sense of proportion on any issue. But even taking that into account, this is going too far. They're all at it – total overkill. We are seriously not interested. Even Mrs EU Referendum has lost interest. To be blunt, I don't know anyone outside the media circus that is interested. And we've got a week to go, when the level of coverage is going to get even higher. Their incontinence will destroy it.

Maybe this explains it, though.

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