Britain is a country whose ruling classes believe barbaric jihadis who fought for ISIS should be rehabilitated back into society. They also believe people should be prosecuted for burning cardboard models of buildings in their back yards and videoing it:
A man accused of filming and posting a “grossly offensive” video of a burning Grenfell Tower effigy on WhatsApp has appeared in court to deny the offence.
Paul Bussetti also pleaded not guilty to causing footage of a “menacing character” to be uploaded on YouTube.
Mr Bussetti, 46, of South Norwood, London, has been charged under the Communications Act 2003 and appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court .
The video was shot at a bonfire party in south-east London.
The rule of law is rapidly slipping away in Britain. Sure there are lots of laws, but their application is wholly arbitrary and they’re written in such a way that something either is or isn’t a crime depending on what those in charge feel like.
When this lot are finally turfed out of office, I hope at least some of them are handed down lengthy prison sentences under laws they helped pass. I don’t even care if it’s done out of pure spite. What, exactly, will be the difference between then and now?
Germany had hate crime laws and jailed quite a few Nazis. Fat lot of good it did them because all that happened was free publicity and even sympathy for the Nazi cause.
This won’t end well for the vast majority of us, the only redeeming feature is that it will be worse for the idiots who started it.
“the only redeeming feature is that it will be worse for the idiots who started it”
But it won’t. Unless there is genuinely a pitchfork wielding mob that storms parliament and garottes ALL of them – a thing it is not really in the makeup of the man on the Clapham omnibus – the bastards that wrought this upon us will neatly sidestep the carnage and be back 30 seconds later claiming to help us root out what went before.
I’m not trying to defend the CPS/Police but the alleged offence here is not the bonfire or the filming but the publication of the video (i.e. uploading it to YouTube).
Under the Communications Act 2003 there is really no chance of acquittal so the accused must have rejected the advice of his brief to plead guilty and get a reduced sentence which makes him even more of an idiot.
I’m not trying to defend the CPS/Police but the alleged offence here is not the bonfire or the filming but the publication of the video (i.e. uploading it to YouTube).
The offence was blasphemy against the now-sacred ruin of the Grenfell Tower. The Communications Act 2003 just happens to be the law they picked to punish it.
Under the Communications Act 2003 there is really no chance of acquittal so the accused must have rejected the advice of his brief to plead guilty and get a reduced sentence which makes him even more of an idiot.
Or he’s making a point. But I concede, he might just be an idiot.
Just have a look at the Communications Act 2003. Wikipedia will do, presumably, unless some lawyer wants to tell me that the Wiki account of it is totally misleading.
It seems absolutely designed to be so vague that it can mean anything that the police (and the Twitter-mob who bring these things to the attention of the police) want it to mean. “Sending a malicious communication using social media”. What’s that about?
My guess is that it could be used against this and many other blogs if someone in authority wanted it to be used in that way.
Background reading:
https://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/Communications_Act_2003/Section_127
Good case studies too
Strangely, videos of Lewes bonfire night are still on you tube. Effigies include the Pope, Brexiteers, etc. and are surely more offensive to more people.
Except that those who might take offence are actual grown ups.
In due course, juries will take the Irish option and refuse to convict whatever the evidence.
Speaking of rules: I see Caster Semanyaya (sp?) has lost her appeal to run unmedicated.
Hmmmm. Too many thoughts to easily unpack here. Is this fair, as she’ll basically have to do what trans women athletes do (reduce testosterone to ‘female’ levels)? Or is it grossly wrong a woman is being subjected to the same medical procedures that former men have volunteered to adopt, in order to continue competing?
The UK does not deserve to live.
Frankly, I won’t settle for anything less than death sentences for all involved, and I’ll vote for/support anyone who can make that happen.
Sam Vara is correct, the Communications Act 2003 is an utterly pernicious piece of legislation, designed to do exactly what he says.
That vague wording works both ways of course, as you’d soon find if you tried to use the Act to nail a member of the establishment.
James Harries:
Strangely, videos of Lewes bonfire night are still on you tube. Effigies include the Pope, Brexiteers, etc. and are surely more offensive to more people.
Except that those who might take offence are actual grown ups.
And of course, even if they did take offence, the establishment doesn’t care about the feelings of Catholics or Brexiteers, so nothing would happen anyway.
Stepping back — the consequence of having so many laws, and having those laws so vaguely written, is that we are all breaking some law or other all the time. The only question is who the punters in charge decide to prosecute. We are back to the Rule of Man, no longer the Rule of Law. The fact that Hillary Rodham-Clinton still shuffles about free is all the evidence one requires.
The brute fact is that all law is based on the credible threat of State violence sanctioned by the broad community. We, the community, could in principle withdraw that sanction; maybe it is time we do so.
Stepping even further back — this is a good example of the Achilles Heel of Brexit. These kinds of stupid laws were passed by the punters in the UK Parliament. Why would anyone believe that mere separation from the EU would change the propensity of said punters to over-reach? Brexit + Pitchforks, Lampposts, Ropes — OK! Brexit alone — big disappointment.
Said it years ago about the proliferation of laws here in the US. The lawyers are legislating us into anarchy.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-6980025/High-school-sweethearts-fell-love-woman.html
The description in the url is somewhat misleading. The word you are waiting for is “thruple”.
” These kinds of stupid laws were passed by the punters in the UK Parliament. Why would anyone believe that mere separation from the EU would change the propensity of said punters to over-reach?”
I think you’ll find, if the UK does indeed get Brexit, you’ll get a different sort of MP. There’s a lot of matters currently aren’t of electoral interest because they’re not in the UK parliament’s remit to influence them. You’ve got a bunch of supine, control freak MPs because that’s what the political climate has produced. Post Brexit there’ll be more serious matters to consider.
>Sam Vara on May 1, 2019 at 11:57 am said:
>“Sending a malicious communication using social media”. What’s that about?
It’s not that complicated. Let’s say I were to post something along the lines of “Tim N is a wanker”. Being a regular bloke like you or I, he would brush it off with the lack of attention it so clearly deserves. No harm, no fine, no crime has been committed.
Now let’s say I said the same thing, but I said it about a protected category of persons such as a politician, public employee, or really anybody who does not look like Tim. Now it’s a crime ready & waiting to be used against me.
See, it’s simple.
>exlib on May 1, 2019 at 12:43 pm said:
>The UK does not deserve to live.
Be patient. The British have been busy neutering themselves for a while now. Being still somewhat British, they have got on with the job in a thorough and well organized manner, and have worked at it steadily. It is a pity really. They had what is arguably the finest civilization since Roman times. By the time the damage is indisputable, they will be trapped in their own handiwork.
Surely this is a game at which to can play?
How about getting the publisher of the Lewes bonfire video prosecuted? Sure, the authorities aren’t going to be interested, but is a private prosecution a possibility? I’m sure you’d find a barrister willing to take the case – and I’d chip in a few quid to a crowd funding effort to finance it.
The only way we’re going to get these laws off the books is when lefties start being taken down by them.
‘The only way we’re going to get these laws off the books is when lefties start being taken down by them.’
Step one is to elect a non-lefty government. Tories clearly don’t count – what with illegalising porn, £6,000 inheritance tax increases, tweedledum blancmange Dave Cameron wannabes running the party.
“Step one is to elect a non-lefty government.”
Unfortunately, the only way you’re going to get a non-lefty government in the UK is by electing a far-lefty one. Then use the period when the Tories are out of office to kick what remains of the party to a well deserved death. Give room to create a real right of centre party. This could be what the Brexit Party turns into after they’ve bloodied their claws & teeth at Brussels, ripping Junker & Tusk new assholes. Or even something erected inside the shell of what survives of the Conservative Party. There’s still some good people down at the constituency level. It’s the parliamentary party’s beyond redemption.
And a spell of Corbyn Marxism mightn’t do the country much harm. And might put the electorate off ever voting Labour again. The Brexit debacle has shown how hard it is to put anything past the “Deep State” it doesn’t approve of. The Trots in power are going to run headlong into the brick wall that is the senior Civil Service & all the vested interests. Any luck the two sides will fight themselves to a standstill, fatally wounding each other in the process. And the sort of legislation Corbyns likely to try & use as a weapon will be a two edged sword. It’ll give the resurgent right the means to kill the leftish beast without the necessity of having to bring it in itself. Then repeal the lot to gain the kudos from doing so.
@BiS – until recently I thought much the same as you but I now fear that, once it is elected, Momentum Labour will ensure it keeps getting elected, via means such as a reduction in the voting age, an end to voter ID requirements, encouraging postal votes, importing more favourable voters, boundary changes etc.
2 or 3 terms of the pinkos and we could be ruined for generations.
Sam Vera: “My guess is that it could be used against this and many other blogs…”
The only questions are ‘when?’ and ‘whom?’…