For Blair there is no such thing as legal principle

[Briar]

Helena Kennedy writes:

...

"New Labour's warm embrace of the market, and its endeavour to thin out the role of the state in the delivery of public services, calls upon it to chart new waters. In New Labour's post-state vision, criminal justice can look like another aspect of state provision that is ripe for rebalancing, giving more power to the consumer -
identified here as the victim. The problem is that the accused and detainees are also consumers of the criminal justice system; the system is in fact a social good belonging to all of us.

In government rhetoric, the criminal process is disingenuously described as a contest between the citizen-victim and the criminal. What is actually taking place is the rebalancing of power towards the state. In a culture where we are all encouraged to think of ourselves as potential victims of criminals or terrorists, we easily
forget that the state is capable of victimising us more effectively.

...

"
Fundamental shifts are taking place in our justice system with barely a whimper of opposition. On June 18 2002, the prime minister claimed that the "biggest miscarriage of justice in today's system is when the guilty walk away unpunished". In that statement he sought to overturn centuries of legal principle and the approach to justice that every mature democracy in the world respects, whereby
the conviction of an innocent man is deemed the greatest miscarriage of justice. For Tony Blair there is no such thing as legal principle, as we saw in the rejection of international legal principle in relation to the Iraq war. For him, everything is negotiable.

However, just law matters. It is the mortar that fills the gaps between nations, people and communities, creating a social bond without which the quality of our lives would be greatly undermined. If we fritter away the principles that underpin law, if we pick them out of the crannies of our political and social architecture, restoration will be impossible. The US supreme court justice, Louis Brandeis, got it right 75 years ago: "Our government is the potent,
the omnipresent teacher. For good or ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for the law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1360810,00.html

(edited to add link)

[orpupilofnature57]

1. SYCOPHANCY ALSO CONTAGIOUS,WATCH OUT TONI !!

[LeftishBrit]

2. He really thinks he's God, doesn't he?

He seems to think he's got the Divine Right of Kings, or something.

[sweetheart]

3. Ironic for a war criminal

Tony blair "IS" god. ;-)

[SweetLeftFoot]

6. War Criminal

Funny how a war crminal should be, as I write, in Belfast putting his credibility on the in an effort to end of the most vicious conflicts of our time ...

[sweetheart]

7. It appears to no avail

It seems Ian Paisley, a man i am more suspicious of than blair, has
blocked a peace agreement, by sticking in a photographic stipulation
to humiliate the IRA... one he knows will block any deal, so he
won't have to serve in government with them.

The king, were he one, should simply behead a few rotters like this
paisley, and get peace settled. Still there is a chance in appealing
to root populism, but i fear that even blair's, self confessed,
"greatest achievement" is in limbo.

Perhaps paisley would like bush to get involved, and send the falluja
troops to belfast to massacre the civilians. Sadly he's no king.

[SweetLeftFoot]

8. Paisley

While McGuinness and Adams have never been shy of fighting dirty (authorising the bombing of Harrods for example), they have at least managed to develop as people and politicians. paisley has not.

Let us not forget this is a man who still publicly states that the EU is a tool of the devil and the Pope (the Antochrist to Pasisley) is using the EU to take over the world.

I think if the deal is done today - and it looks like it won'tbe - Blair, Ahern and Sinn Fein will simply wait for Paisley to die. The talk is he has something terminal.

[Briar]

9. It was his son

who ignited the crisis by referring to the photographs as humiliating to the IRA.

[Briar]

10. Oh damn

Aaronovitch has said something I agree with. Of course, it is blindingly obvious...

Castrate the younger men

Freud would have loved Ian Paisley and the IRA

....


It falls apart because Paisley wants the handing over of IRA
arms to be photographed so that everybody can see them lose
their weapons, and because the IRA cannot bear to have its
weaponlessness so publicly recorded in this way. You don't have
to be Freud to stroke your beard upon hearing this, and to
mutter that this is all "most interesting".

I'm all of a sudden back to a meeting room in Queen's Belfast
during the hunger strikes. A number of Provo students are
heckling me, the Brit. They submit questions on pieces of paper.
One has a picture of a large rifle and invites me to agree that
"Armalites are magic!"; another shows an RPG7 firing a grenade,
and looks for all the world like a piece of ejaculatory
graffiti. And now these weapons must be given up.

In the temple at Karnak is the victory stela of the Pharoah
Merneptah, who - in 1208 - triumphed over the Libyans. The
pictures show the aftermath of the battle, the procession of the
prisoners and a pile of strange, banana-shaped objects. These,
it transpires, are the 13,000 penises severed from their
unfortunate owners by the victorious Egyptians. Now, since
13,000 severed penises are not particularly useful, their public
show represents a powerful psychological message. Which is: "I
cut your willy off".

It happens in the Bible, too. In the first Book of Samuel King

Saul orders David to forget about a conventional dowry for his

daughter. No, the king desireth "an hundred foreskins of the
Philistines, to be avenged of the king's enemies". In fact, not
so much foreskins, you understand, as the whole thing. And not
just decommissioned, but brought before him. In baskets.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1369545,00.html

[SweetLeftFoot]

12. Over intellectualising

I think Aaronovitch is over egging the pudding a bit there - not that he's afraid of that.

For mine, the McGuinness/Adams Republicans have made a leap of thinking that Paisley has not and cannot. They have agreed to abandon the raison d'etre of their organisation (armed struggle for a united Ireland) in favour of maintaining the goal but using completely different methods in a completely different framework (a united Ireland brought about by consent of the people in the affected area).

paisley is still living a black-and-white fight. Which, as we know, from Iraq to Ulster, is simply a myth. You can't be "with us or against us" on every single issue.

I hope the old toad dies and soon too.

[Briar]

13. Yep

but don't forget Ian Paisley, Son of Supermouth.

[SweetLeftFoot]

14. Impasse

The thing is that most likely both the DUP and the Shinners will increase their votes in the Westminster election next year. If the DUP vote drops, then the process may restart, but if the Protestant community increases the vote, then the DUP won't budge.

Wankers. Still can't get over the fact that the 'Taigs' stood up and said - "We'd like to be treated as equals in our own country please".

[SweetLeftFoot]

11. Paisley Jr

Paisley Snr didn't help matters by demanding the Provos "wear sackcloth and ashes".

Re: Paisley JR - isn't terrifying to think that at least once, a woman submitted to sexual congress with the Rev Dr. Ian paisley.

Somehow I don't think foreplay would be his strong suit.

[tjwmason]

4. Never liked him.

Even Canute realised that the tide would still come in. Perhaps we should stick Blair on the sea-shore at low-tide.

[billyskank]

5. For Blair, there is no such thing as a principle

full stop.

[Smeggy]

15. meh

The article I agree with maybe 20%, the bit you quoted, 0%.