Wednesday 14 December 2011

PAY UP TO PLAY THE GAME

You may remember that a lad was walking home from his girlfriend's house on one hot night of the London riots in August. He was thirsty and helped himself to two bottles of water from a shop that had been looted and was sitting open. Total value of his theft, around £2.80. He was sent to prison for 6 months. 


With the agreement of the government courts were encouraged to hand down severe sentences to anyone who had been even remotely involved. For example, two lads who posted invitations to the riots on the Facebook pages were sentenced to 4 years in prison.


When cases went to the English Appeal Court they were upheld.


Baron Haddingfield, a man in a position where no one would question his integrity because of his station, a man who was bowed and scraped to, who was entitled to a chauffeur driven car, and who was called a Noble Lord, in fact a man people might have been expected to look up to stole, not 2 bottles of water worth £2.80, but £28,000. He was sentenced to 9 months imprisonment but actually only served 9 weeks because he was feeling poorly.


Baroness Uddin stole £125,000 from us by pretending that she lived at the seaside and was obliged to purchase another house in London because she had to attend the House of Lords. In fact she had had the house in London for many years. Her kids had been brought up there. The seaside flat was unfurnished and she never went there. It was all a great big scam to make her some money. And she went further. She would walk into the Lords, sign in, and walk out another door, spending less than 5 minutes in the building. For that she claimed her daily allowance of £300. 


She hasn't been sent to prison at all, although the police are said to be looking into her case a couple of years on.


But now the House of Lords has decided to punish them and all their grubby little mates most severely. Yes, draconian measures are to be taken.


From now on they won't be allowed to return to the House of Privilege until the money has been repaid, or until the next UK General Election, whichever comes first. They will, of course retain their titles and styles.


Nooooooooooo, I hear you cry in unison, at the severity of the punishment. Take it to the European Court of Lordly Rights.


The Lords' authorities have decided against trying to pursue noble members through the courts as they think that judges would not be prepared to hear cases involving the rights of the house.


Dear dear, and I thought London had police! Where's Cressida Dick when you erm need her?

17 comments:

  1. The real looting took place at Westminster, inside the Palace by the employees, the MPs and Noble Lords.

    The fish riots from the head down.


    However the toe-rags who attempted to encourage others to destroy and harm others deserve all they were given then some

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  2. I told you to get an EDIT button!


    The fish rots from the head down !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  3. It was pretty appropriate though Woolfie... :)

    Yep. I'm not excusing the rioters, or those who encouraged them, but how on earth can you have the least respect for a justice system which puts a guy in prison for 6 months for stealing two bottles of water, and 9 weeks for stealing £24,000, just because the ba***rd has a title.

    I've certainly no respect for any of it.

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  4. I knew that the rioters were going to get hammered by the courts before any sentencing was announced.

    Looting your expense account is a crime but it's not one that shows up the state as losing control and incompetent in the face of mass action. The police are the enforcers of the state and they represent the state on the streets. Loss of control is always the state's biggest fear.

    The rioters were in the main just thugs out for rammy and for a chance to nick as much as they could when the going was good but that wasn't the reason they got hammered in the courts it was because they took control of the streets away from the police and from the state.

    The response from the state through the courts was always going to be brutal and indiscriminate to discourage it from happening again.

    Expense account looting is no threat to the state and can be glossed over when it's performed by members of the Establishment because if they full force of the law was applied to them then it might set a precedent for other cases of light fingered lords.

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  5. In any case, Doug, they are all doing it up the top. I bet judges fiddle their expenses too, because no one would dare to question them.

    The trouble is that power corrupts almost everyone, and totally power corrupts them totally. If there is no one there to stop you from taking a bit more...which is stealing, then you will.

    Camergoon doesn't want to make too much fuss about that sort of thing, because he's a thief too. He thought, for example, that he would never be caught charging us for his chimney to be freed from creeping plants... What? If his chimney had had storks nesting in it, never mind a bit of creeper, it wouldn't have stopped him doing his job as an MP. So his claim was theft. Unless he was too stupid to know otherwise (which is always a possibility).

    So, if the prime minister is a chancing thieving git, despite being rich, what can we expect from everyone else?

    I wonder how long people will put up with this crap.

    I can see revolution coming.

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  6. I live in London and was able to witness the aftermath of the riots. They get no sympathy of me. They were thieves who took advantage of a breakdown in law and order.
    As to that corrupt bunch of parasites who call themselves our representatives, the sooner we leave this excuse of a democracy and go our own way the better for all of us.

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  7. Yes Gedguy, but the purpose of this post was not to show any kind of support for the people who availed themselves of the spoils of riots and looting.

    They took advantage of what was a temporary breakdown in society; they took advantage of the fact that there was no one to stop them.

    They were in some ways just like the titled people mentioned. There was, and probably still is, no one to stop them doing what they want, taking what they want.

    And so, at both end of society, they took what they could. The lad a couple of bottles of water worth less that £3; the "good"? baroness, cash to the value of £125,000.

    The lad is doing 6 months for is £3, the woman, sorry baroness ....?

    If they don't want more riots; if they want to show that we are 'all in it together', that's maybe not quite the right way of going about it.

    I understand that, from the government's point of view, it is important to make sure that the riots never happen again. Clearly it's of no great import if the thieves in Westminster carry on stealing.

    Actually that would make a good film about life in parliament.

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  8. What does a warship, 13500 soldiers, surface to air missiles and fighter aircraft have in common?

    On Topic: More thieves here.

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  9. I was gonna say that!!!:(

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  10. If Max has got it right, then the EU were bang on to want that stopped, and I can see why the greedy gits that find the Tories would not want it to happen. Just how many times can you mortgage your house simultaneously?

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  11. PS: How much will all this hardware and men cost?

    Mind you, after Iraq and Afghanistan, not to mention Libya, they deserve to be up there with royals, MPs, Lords, Mayors "celebrities" and corporate sponsors, getting to see the games that ordinary people can't.

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  12. Lots and lots x lots and lots and more. Its actually starting to become rather scary and a declaration of UDI might be our best/only way forward.

    Rather long but knowledge is better than ignorance. Plan B – How to loot nations and their banks legally

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  13. Can't underspend on the Olympics. People might think they were totally broke!

    It's said Cameron was the one who insisted that more money be spent on the opening and closing ceremonies because he thought they were not grand enough for London.

    Oh well.

    What will be do with all the tramps and vagabonds?

    Well, yes, it was very long, and I sped read, but it doesn't paint a cheery picture does it?

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  14. It's signed.

    It is verifiably true that they stole this money?

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