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Sunday 21 July 2019

Lawfare - The tide turns

This year's Reith Lectures by Lord Sumption really were extraordinarily prescient. Go on, listen to them if you haven't already - after all, you paid for them. Just like you've paid already for all the classic TV that the BBC will now charge you £70 a year to watch. Back to Sumption. He decried the intrusion of legal processes into matters that ought to be democratically decided - into political matters. Increasingly, those unhappy with the decision by the British electorate to Leave the EU have used the courts and legal processes to seek to frustrate or sabotage our exit. From Gina Miller to the biased Common Purpose shills at the Electoral Commission who have misconducted themselves in the exercise of their authority, Remain has taken up Lawfare in preference to democracy.

But now it seems the tide is turning. The biased and crooked Electoral Commission have now been slapped down three times by the courts - surely enough to provoke the mass cull of both Commissioners and the top two tiers of management - the latest over their unlawful persecution of young Darren Grimes. Arron Banks, fed up with the lies, barbs and insults of Remain campaigners posing as journalists, is taking Carole Cadwalladr to court to make an example of her.

Boris is also expected to push a robust and committed Attorney General into vigorous legal opposition to attempts to challenge the government in the courts - to maintain, as Lord Sumption has cogently explained, the proper separation of legal from political matters.

In the words of Corporal Jones, they don't like it up 'em.

Now that Leave have started playing the Lawfare game, and winning, the Remain side want to pull stumps -
... press freedom campaigners and charity groups warn the government in an open letter that UK courts are being used to “intimidate and silence” journalists working in the public interest. In a joint letter to key cabinet members, they call for new legislation to stop “vexatious lawsuits”, highlighting one filed last week by Banks against campaigning journalist Carole Cadwalladr.
reports the Guardian.

You couldn't make it up.

20 comments:

Stephen J said...

These actions seem to be not only anti-democratic, but happily counterproductive.

If Gina Miller had not pursued her meaningful vote case, the Maybot would have just taken the UK out on "her" special Martin Selmayr deal, and we would by now officially be a vassal state.

As for the unfortunately monikered "EC", it is almost worth its weight in gold, just for the regular unforced faux pas.

DeeDee99 said...

Fairly trivial, compared to Darren Grimes win, but prosecution and conviction of the pig-ignorant left-wing thug who threw a milkshake over Farage also sent a clear message to anyone else tempted to vent their frustration with democracy-at-work in the UK: fined; forced to pay compensation; several weeks' of community service and lost his job.

Smoking Scot said...

Err... Cost of TV licence?

It's £154 for colour and £52 for black and white.

DiscoveredJoys said...

And yet the case No. CO/1322/2019 (to have the High Court Declare that the UK left the EU at the expiry of our Notice on the 29th March) is meeting with a lot of delay and perhaps unwarranted resistance.

In a well ordered world you might have expected that a case like this would have been dealt with very quickly to resolve it (one way or another).

They don't like it up 'em, indeed.

Raedwald said...

Smoking Scot - the BBC archive will only in future be available on the new Britbox subscription service, expected to launch at £5.99 a month. This is in addition to the TV tax.

Cheerful Edward said...

Our judiciary working in the common law have made their rulings.

As for Darren Grimes, on the face of it, the findings seem to me to be correct. He was fined for a criminal offence. Now, the burden of proof for that needs to be "beyond reasonable doubt". Since the Electoral Commission itself made misleading pronouncements to BeLeave, and Grimes claims that he simply made a mistake too, I can't see how that burden was discharged. However, the Leave campaigns have NOT been cleared of breaking electoral law by this ruling.

The Miller case, under the UK Constitution, left the Supreme Court no serious option other than to find in her favour.

Johnson's case, until it be overturned, means that holders of high office can now lie to the nation legally, without bringing that office into disrepute.

Banks hasn't even seen the Netflix film, so it would appear that this is just a vexatious suit aimed at suppressing things he doesn't want known. The murdered journalist in Malta was subject to forty such suits at the time of her death.

The Courts, by and large seem to be doing their job with the law as it is. They are not enemies of the people.

Elby the Beserk said...

Smoking Scot said...
Err... Cost of TV licence?

It's £154 for colour and £52 for black and white.

21 July 2019 at 08:38
==================================

I suspect the
£70 Raedwald quotes will be the charge for the new BBC streaming service, which they will charge you to re-watch re-runs of programmes you paid to have made.

Raedwald said...

Edward - only you have suggested that courts are 'enemies of the people' - I make no such suggestion. Why do Remainers lie and invent so much untruth? Are you lot pathologically incapable of reading straight words without your brains twisting them?

I have suggested that Remain or Remain-biased actors have been misusing tha law - do you not understand this?

Raedwald said...

Oh, and don't you dare quote Daphne Caruana Galizia at me - she was blown up by a mafia cabal linked to corrupt EU funding - the links between the EU, the Maltesse mafia and Maltese politicians including MEPs being the subject of the story that caused them to murder her.

EU dags were no doubt dancing in the streets at news of her murder.

Cheerful Edward said...

The right-wing press claimed that the Courts were the enemies of the people, I did not accuse you of so doing Raedwald.

But there is no "tide" in these matters. Some decisions by judges will go against prejudices, others with them.

The Johnson case is interesting, in that it attracted far more attention abroad than it did at home, which says something about the fatalism and moral atrophy of public morës here, and as reflected in this ruling. The judge was implicitly saying that since eminent members of the British Establishment - of which he is a part - have always lied to the public, it would be heretical to change that freedom for them to continue to do so.

Cheerful Edward said...

PS, you rightly mourn the murder of a brave Maltese journalist for trying to expose criminality or wrongdoing, maybe involving MEPs - Malta has five. Of the forty lawsuits to which she was subject, many were from British companies, incidentally.

So why do you attack Carol Cadwalladr for doing the same re one or more of ours, Nigel Farage MEP et al, that is?

At least Janet Atkinson got nailed. Let's hope that more prosecutions follow.

Anonymous said...

Ed, this is another example where you try so hard and yet make a complete arse of yourself.

Aaron Banks is going to nail the mad cat lady, because she is full of shit. And so are you.

Dave_G said...


It would also seem that guilt (in the case of fraud) is no barrier to becoming the leading financier for the EU too as Legarde's elevation to the ECB exemplifies.

One could easily be forgiven for thinking that corruption is a specific requirement for EU positions such is their adherence to 'openness' or 'integrity'............

Span Ows said...

As suspected, Cheerful Ed is various different trolls who I assume work differnt hours but sign in on the same name. This has happened for years, even back before the BBC closed their message boards. Around the time the very independent and diverse blogosphere became swamped by the MSM 'joining in'. So sad it was when the blog awards became flooded with all the big names from the MSM instead of the colourful incisive independent blogs.

Anyhoo, it is the only explication for the tag team of variations of dumb-arse Ed and rather good debater Ed, however neither ever learn when they are corrected on quite obvious and proven points.

Raedwald said...

Span - yes, I have been thinking the same. It was obvious that two different Edwards were posting on a very recent post.

Well, they're both banned now.

Anonymous said...

Just a point of logic, Anon.

If she were really full of shit, then he could have sued her and won long ago.

RAC said...

@ R 17:58
Well have you not got that thingumyjig that shows the IP address. Can't remember what it was called but it used to give quite a range of other information as well.

Anonymous said...

I should think that he has got it, RAC. It probably just disproves his and Ows claim.

John Brown said...

Dave G 12:49 :

“One could easily be forgiven for thinking that corruption is a specific requirement for EU positions such is their adherence to 'openness' or 'integrity'...........”

The main requirement for an EU position is to be unpopular or rejected via the ballot box in one’s own country. This ensures the EU employee dislikes even their own country and will enhance their loyalty to the EU.

I have read that the EU insists that all EU countries must abolish the crime of treason, which is perfectly understandable.

RAC said...

@ Anonymous 08:11
Hi there Tearful Ted