Name suppression of ex.MP

The internet has made this entire case a bit of a game. Cameron Slater's post is skirting on the edge of the law, though he explains part of his view on name suppression here. Some have taken to assuming the ex. MP charged of a sexual offence represented this or that electorate, or is in this or that party. It doesn't helop that the New Zealand Herald said "former MP from the top of the South Island" although appearing in the Nelson District Court indicated that anyway.

Ken Shirley has incorrectly been mentioned too often in relation to this, and continuing to name people without any basis for it other than pure speculation is quite unfair. Of course, the list of possible MPs (which if you include all top of the South Island electorates and list MPs) is not great, so it puts a handful under suspicion, although no doubt their family and friends can vouch for them all, bar one.

Of course, given the internet the answer was bound to turn up, and it really wasn't rocket science to figure it out. One very well known and popular website effectively names the accused indirectly. It isn't the only place mentioning it (and no I'm not going to say).

The purpose of name suppression is primarily to protect victims or relatives of the accused. That is entirely fair and reasonable. How this is addressed when the internet is extra-territorial, and allows people to post elsewhere is difficult, as I suspect thousands now know the name and it is being mentioned in person, by phone and even by the foolish by email.

So in effect name suppression has value only in delaying not preventing circulation of names, and in the case of the unknown is likely to be effective. So the question is why should anyone, who has a public profile, be protected from the same sort of scrutiny anyone else might have? Well they should not, people should be treated on a similar basis - and if name suppression is to protect the victim, then it may not be abused like it has been in this case. If it is to protect the accused, then the question has to be asked why?

However, equally disconcerting is that other former MPs from who are nothing to do with this case are having their reputations put under the spotlight because of speculation. Similarly, if there is truth in the alleged offences, then concern should also be for the victim.

It is also fair to note that until the man concerned is convicted, he should be treated as innocent until proven guilty. However, this sort of thing should not be a game. If found guilty, then the name should be released, only if it is not detrimental to the victim. It is quite possible this whole case is very very messy given all those involved.

I am not allowing comments, for fairly obvious reasons.

Islam 4 UK driven underground

The pro sharia law organisation "Islam 4 UK" has now been declared a terrorist organisation by the UK government, banning it, which of course simply means it will regroup under a new name, and re-emerge. The move is unsurprising, but also shows the emptiness of New Labour, which like most things it doesn't like, thinks that a law banning it will make it better - this being the same government that has embraced funding Islamic groups, and has passed laws against "hate speech".

Islam4UK has responded by saying: "what is clear is that if you differ with the Brown regime and those who advocate freedom and democracy and whose citizens are supposedly dying for these ideals abroad, then freedom quickly dissipates to be replaced by dictatorship... Today's ban is another nail in the coffin of capitalism and another sign of the revival of Islam and Muslims. "

Islam4Uk openly admits it opposes freedom and democracy, and is celebrating being banned. Islam4UK after all envisages a world where you'd be imprisoned or worse for "insulting" Islam.

Is a ban helpful? No. It just shows weakness and plays into the hands of the organisation.

What would be a preferable response? A direct, open and loud declaration by all political parties that believe in it that Sharia law will not be implemented in the UK, that Western capitalist liberal democracy has survived threats from fascism and communism and wont tolerate stone age theocrats seeking to undermine it and the rights of individual citizens to live their lives peacefully as they see fit.

Oh and when Islam4UK does ever utter justification for the use of force to advance its politics, then it should be treated as a terrorist organisation (not banned), and its members and associates treated as such by law enforcement agencies.

Loser vs talent = Minto vs Peer

According to the NZ Herald, John Minto, a mediocrity, locally known Marxist, has decided to pick on Israeli tennis player Shahar Peer. Why? Because Minto opposes Israel's treatment of the Palestinians (never uttering a word of criticism of the Palestinian authorities or Hamas of course). A pathetic little man who tries to paint a private citizen as representing the politics of Israel. What a welcome!

Does Minto protest Iranians because the Iranian regime murders political opponents, homosexuals, rigs elections and is seeking nuclear weapons? No, because it's "anti-American".

Does Minto protest Zimbabweans because of the Mugabe regime? No. He has little time for Mugabe today, but once was a cheerleader for this proven murderous thug - when it was de riguer to say he was a "hero".

Does Minto get fired up about North Korea, which imprisons and enslaves young children for the political "crimes" of their elders? No.

Did Minto damn the use of violence for political means in a liberal democracy? No, and no less than fellow socialist Chris Trotter damned him for it.

He's a very selective moralist. He protests regimes that have ties to the West, protests regimes that open up to trade and capitalism. He keeps his mouth shut and stays away from protesting those that seek destruction of Western civilisation and capitalism. He didn't even note the passing of Helen Suzman, one of South Africa's foremost opponents of apartheid, because she was also an opponent of the Marxism of the ANC.

Global Peace and Justice is a Marxist organisation that is avowedly against the values of the United States, opposed to capitalism, open trade, free movement of people, goods and services and happily ignores the tyranny, murder and oppression of freedom of regimes and groups. It is only interested in peace at the price of freedom of religion (for it does not fight Iran or Hamas), and justice meaning taking property through state violence.

As such Minto should be dismissed as the fringe tired old commie that he is, after all what place is there for a man who believes that the reason a few brutally abuse children is because they don't get enough welfare money?

UK taxpayers fund Islamist enemy

Anjem Choudhary leads Islam4UK, an Islamist group that wants UK residents to embrace Islam and the UK government to submit to it, and for the UK to become an Islamist state.

He has received much publicity lately for organising a protest march in the town of Wootton Bassett, which holds unofficial public mourning events when the coffins of soldiers returned from Iraq and Afghanistan arrive from the nearby RAF Lineham base.

Choudhary wants a counter protest to represent the "Muslims who have died" implicitly due to UK involvement in war in Iraq and Afghanistan. He claims they are the true victims.

Choudhary has long expressed views contrary to that of Western civilisation, celebrating the 9/11 terrorists as "martyrs", he refused to condemn the 2005 bombings in London and has long called for Sharia law to be implemented in the UK.

Now it is discovered that this enemy of the British political system and way of life is being funded by the taxpayer. He is a welfare parasite according to Guido Fawkes, getting around £25,000 a year from the taxpayer. The beloved welfare state funding, feeding, clothing, housing a man who effectively incites terrorism (but dances delicately along the line of not breaking the law as he does). He can't be deported as he was born here, but he gives a damned good reason for why the welfare state should be abolished.

Meanwhile, the appropriate response is to counter the views he expresses, to damn Islamism and damn the idea of an Islamic state for the UK. His views need to be confronted, his lies about what British troops are doing in Afghanistan exposed for what they are, and it's a good enough reason for serious questions to be asked as to why this man can claim so much on welfare.

Iceland's revolt

Iceland has suffered more than most countries in Europe from the recent recession, not least because it became the host for a series of financial institutions that have since failed. The most notable one is Icesave, which borrowed heavily to establish itself as an institution engaged extensively in providing credit for property and offering high interest bearing bank accounts.

Like other banks that have failed in this part of the world, none of those in the sector drew any attention to the nature of the operation, and the UK regulator - the Financial Services Authority (FSA) - happily rubber stamped it all. In other words, what it did was officially approved as being robust. With Icesave, among others, very highly leveraged, the financial crisis saw it unable to rollover its debt facilities, so it all came to a tumbling end. Hundreds of thousands of depositors in the UK, Netherlands and Germany found their accounts frozen, all assuming that with state "endorsement", their money would be "safe". So the UK government decided that other UK taxpayers should bail out the depositors. Not for a moment did Gordon Brown argue that depositors should have thought more carefully, not for a moment did he seek to fire the FSA for being effectively useless, not for a moment did he think about taxpayers over investors.

So having done this, the UK looked to recover some of this from Iceland, effectively demanding Icelandic taxpayers pay the UK for its policies. Quite what Icelandic taxpayers have to do with a private Icelandic company is beyond me, after all it was a policy choice by Gordon "borrow" Brown to bail out depositors. The Icelandic government agreed to cover a portion of the deposit costs, under significant pressure, but Iceland's taxpayers have turned on their government.

The total cost of this foolish promise is £3.6 billion, for a country with the population of greater Wellington. Allister Heath in City AM points out the scale of this, which explains why nearly a third of Iceland's adult population has signed a petition demanding the President veto legislation authorising the deal:

the proposal will now be put to a referendum and crushed. The sums involved are huge: 40-60 per cent of Iceland’s national income, taking the national debt to 200 per cent of GDP. Each of Iceland’s 304,000 citizen would have to pay £11,700 without getting shares or any assets in return. The money would be gone for good. Imagine if UK taxpayers were asked to pay £700bn to overseas governments because one of our banks had messed up. We too would be up in arms.

Yes, the bank was irresponsible, but it was a private entity.
Yes Iceland's government shouldn't have agreed to help pay part of the bailout to the UK and Dutch governments, but then given the UK economy is 144x the size of Iceland's how could the UK expect much from it?
A better response from Iceland's government would be to state that its banks operate in a free market are not government guaranteed so creditors beware.

So Iceland's taxpayers, who didn't own the failed bank, didn't invest in it and never promised to bail it out and saying "enough". Good for them. Whilst some noise was made about Iceland voting in a new leftwing government, which has supported the deal, the protests have clearly rattled both it, and its belief that taxpayers are there to be fleeced for "their own good".

Big bully Brown is threatening to veto a forthcoming Icelandic application for EU membership. Iceland ought not to be too concerned, since all such membership will do is mean Iceland, as (still) a relatively wealthy European country will probably be a net payer to the socialist subsidy schemes of the EU, and Iceland's ample fisheries would be plundered by the parasitical subsidised fishing fleets of France, Spain, Portugal and the UK.

As Allister Heath continues: "The bankers were incompetent, as were the Icelandic authorities, the UK authorities, the EU and the depositors who didn’t do their research. Egged on by price comparison websites and personal finance pages, the public assumed regulators would ensure every newfangled online bank was safe and forgot that high returns often mean high risk. Instead of acknowledging this, Brown is pursuing a vendetta against Iceland, trying to recoup all of the cash from its government."

Iceland's voters will no doubt say no in a forthcoming referendum, not wanting to put themselves and their children under enormous state enforced debt. If it means pariah status from the IMF and the EU, Icelanders are likely to prefer that to being under servitude to bail out policies from other governments.

As the Daily Telegraph points out, this marks a new low in relations with the UK since the Cod Wars. The UK government classified the Icelandic Central Bank alongside Al Qaeda, under anti-terrorism laws, just so it could seize its assets. Iceland is a member of NATO.

So Iceland has served as a warning, that taxpayers will only take so much from governments claiming to speak on their behalf. Sadly, the UK is too big, and British taxpayers too inert to revolt against state kleptomania.