Priorities
The Times - Three murderers and nine rapists head list of lost foreign criminals: The whereabouts of three murderers and nine rapists on Charles Clarke's list of lost foreign criminals was still unknown last night despite the fact that all were supposed to be under supervision. The admission by Home Office sources casts doubt not only on the system for expelling foreign prisoners but also on the monitoring of released murderers and the operation of the sex offenders register. Sex attackers and killers from overseas should be supervised upon release in the same way as British-born offenders. Hundreds of names from the list of 916 unaccounted-for criminals were passed last night to the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) as the Home Office's trawl became increasingly desperate. Until late afternoon Acpo had been given just 80 names, including those of the most dangerous criminals, to check against the Police National Computer (PNC). But The Times has learnt that there is no active search in progress for any of the listed offenders.
BBC - Freed criminals not on computer: Details of more than 20 of the 80 most dangerous foreign prisoners freed without facing deportation cannot be found on the national police computer. They include one murderer and a rapist. A source told the BBC police may not have sufficient details to run a check. But Home Office minister Hazel Blears insisted the most serious offenders would be out on licence and monitored.
Listen to Hazel Blears struggling to defend Charles Clarke here.
Also spare a thought for the remarkable favour Blair and his cronies have done (again) for the right-wing tabloids, parties and interest groups.
Oh, and you may even want to have a quiet think about all those high-priority issues that were dealt with ahead of this one... like banning spontaneous demonstrations in Westminster under a banner of 'war on serious crime'.
(Fucking hell... there's a man on the loose with a megaphone! We'll have him. And let's take photos of all the demonstrators that we don't arrest... well, the ones that aren't working for the police anyway. Ten quid says *that* database is kept up to scratch.)
Can you see the Primary Priority at work here?
When they try to call him to account for perfectly valid reasons, Blair bleats that he won't be driven to distraction to by the media... but let's look at the cold, hard reality of it:
1) The responsible arm of the media machine is - by and large - whipped. Blair only claims that they're overdoing it on those rare occasions when they get off their arses and actually do their job.
2) The Home Office has been awfully busy lately pushing and enforcing headline-grabbing legislation prompted mainly by misguided hysteria fuelled by the tabloids. Oh, and an ongoing need to take Iraq off the agenda (see below).
3) Nothing got done about the foreign criminals issue until it came to light. Now, suddenly, it's all hands on deck... as if that makes everything OK.
The Home Office no longer operates to protect the public; it operates to Protect The Blair. And if you need further proof of this...
BBC - Things can only get better...?: If, as many are demanding, Mr Clarke was forced to resign before voters go to the polls next Thursday, it would only add to the impression of a government in serious trouble. And the desire not to give that impression, combined with Mr Blair's desire not to lose another friend from the Cabinet, may yet be Mr Clarke's greatest protection.
And it's not just home security that operates in this basis... almost every other domestic initiative has been deliberately formed and timed in one desperate attempt after another to take Blair's greatest crime off the agenda.
And that's a matter that *still* needs to be settled.
The illegal invasion of Iraq and the cynical exploitation of the threat of terrorism has poisoned our society and crippled our government.
We as a people need to deal with this issue once and for all or - no matter what happens to Blair and his cronies next week - we will get the government we deserve... and that government will stand for pre-emptive strikes on oil-rich nations, torture, detention without trial and further suppression of anyone who dares object to such things.
If you think we deserve better, then you have to work for it.... and this coming week is the time in which you can do the most good.
This shit must end, people.
UPDATE - And here's a picture, boys and girls:
BBC - Freed criminals not on computer: Details of more than 20 of the 80 most dangerous foreign prisoners freed without facing deportation cannot be found on the national police computer. They include one murderer and a rapist. A source told the BBC police may not have sufficient details to run a check. But Home Office minister Hazel Blears insisted the most serious offenders would be out on licence and monitored.
Listen to Hazel Blears struggling to defend Charles Clarke here.
Also spare a thought for the remarkable favour Blair and his cronies have done (again) for the right-wing tabloids, parties and interest groups.
Oh, and you may even want to have a quiet think about all those high-priority issues that were dealt with ahead of this one... like banning spontaneous demonstrations in Westminster under a banner of 'war on serious crime'.
(Fucking hell... there's a man on the loose with a megaphone! We'll have him. And let's take photos of all the demonstrators that we don't arrest... well, the ones that aren't working for the police anyway. Ten quid says *that* database is kept up to scratch.)
Can you see the Primary Priority at work here?
When they try to call him to account for perfectly valid reasons, Blair bleats that he won't be driven to distraction to by the media... but let's look at the cold, hard reality of it:
1) The responsible arm of the media machine is - by and large - whipped. Blair only claims that they're overdoing it on those rare occasions when they get off their arses and actually do their job.
2) The Home Office has been awfully busy lately pushing and enforcing headline-grabbing legislation prompted mainly by misguided hysteria fuelled by the tabloids. Oh, and an ongoing need to take Iraq off the agenda (see below).
3) Nothing got done about the foreign criminals issue until it came to light. Now, suddenly, it's all hands on deck... as if that makes everything OK.
The Home Office no longer operates to protect the public; it operates to Protect The Blair. And if you need further proof of this...
BBC - Things can only get better...?: If, as many are demanding, Mr Clarke was forced to resign before voters go to the polls next Thursday, it would only add to the impression of a government in serious trouble. And the desire not to give that impression, combined with Mr Blair's desire not to lose another friend from the Cabinet, may yet be Mr Clarke's greatest protection.
And it's not just home security that operates in this basis... almost every other domestic initiative has been deliberately formed and timed in one desperate attempt after another to take Blair's greatest crime off the agenda.
And that's a matter that *still* needs to be settled.
The illegal invasion of Iraq and the cynical exploitation of the threat of terrorism has poisoned our society and crippled our government.
We as a people need to deal with this issue once and for all or - no matter what happens to Blair and his cronies next week - we will get the government we deserve... and that government will stand for pre-emptive strikes on oil-rich nations, torture, detention without trial and further suppression of anyone who dares object to such things.
If you think we deserve better, then you have to work for it.... and this coming week is the time in which you can do the most good.
This shit must end, people.
UPDATE - And here's a picture, boys and girls:
(image posted to B3ta)
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