F4J “Kidnap Plot”: Is The Sun Exposed in Bribery Scam?: On Thursday, Martin Matthews, one of the subjects of the police investigation said in a statement that a “3rd party” had offered him “10K from the Sun newspaper” to accuse Fathers4Justice leader Matt O’Connor of masterminding the alleged kidnapping plan.
The police have belatedly charged Maya Evans’ co-demonstrator, Milan Rai, with “organising” the demo for which Maya was prosecuted.
(Wow… does this classify as a new ‘target the head’ policy?)
Am I next? Well, the police did said that: “We treated the event as a carol service and not as a demonstration so the legislation did not come into play.”
But they may very well change their minds… especially if this person is a policeman, as many suspect he is. After all, this legislation has – so far – been used exclusively on those who cause Tony Blair embarrassment.
I think potentially outing one of his storm-troopers qualifies… perhaps they will find a way to serve a retro-active burger with the works. Let’s see if I can’t give them a helping hand:
On Saturday 14th Jan 2006, I went on a little pilgrimage to the exclusion zone, and gathered some data. I began with a map and the limits of the zone as defined by The Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 (Designated Area) Order 2005:
For the purposes of sections 132 to 137 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005, the designated area is the area bounded by an imaginary line starting at the point where Hungerford Bridge crosses Victoria Embankment, continuing along Hungerford Bridge to the point where it crosses Belvedere Road, rightwards along Belvedere Road as far as Chicheley Street, leftwards along Chicheley Street as far as York Road, rightwards along York Road, crossing Westminster Bridge Road into Lambeth Palace Road, along Lambeth Palace Road as far as Lambeth Bridge, over Lambeth Bridge, leftwards along Millbank as far as Thorney Street, along Thorney Street as far as Horseferry Road, leftwards along Horseferry Road as far as Strutton Ground, along Strutton Ground crossing over Victoria Street into Broadway, along Broadway as far as Queen Anne’s Gate, along Queen Anne’s Gate as far as Birdcage Walk, rightwards along Birdcage Walk as far as Horse Guards Road, along Horse Guards Road as far as the Mall, rightwards along the Mall, across the north end of Whitehall as far as Northumberland Avenue, along Northumberland Avenue as far as Victoria Embankment, leftwards along Victoria Embankment returning to the starting point.
Exclusion Zone Fact #1 – It would take the average person 60 to 90 minutes to walk this perimeter (it took me 72 minutes).
Exclusion Zone Fact #2 – From start to finish, this involves just 6,983 steps.
Exclusion Zone Fact #3 – The perimeter extends much further beyond Parliament than MPs were expecting when they voted on the Act and, at its very limits, it just happens to cover Labour HQ, both branches of the Home Office and Scotland Yard (i.e. the people responsible for introducing it, and the people responsible for enforcing it).
Exclusion Zone Fact #4 – The exclusion zone has within it over a dozen memorials, including – at the north-western extremity – the National Police Memorial. Because the Act does not define what constitutes a demonstration, even if you wish to do something as simple as lay a wreath at any of these memorials, you will first need to apply for permission. (In writing. Six days in advance.)
Exclusion Zone Fact #5 – In practical terms, the exclusion zone extends even further than its suggested perimeter. As the Act states; “references to a named street or other highway include the pavements adjoining that street or other highway on the extremity of the designated area.” This means that you can’t protest on any road that defines the perimeter, or on the pavement across that road (with the oh-so-generous exception of Trafalgar Square) and in most cases, what’s on the other side of that pavement is a building. So unless you’re a major property owner, you are shit out of luck, fella (see; this same Act on private property and Crown land). Also, if you’re thinking of standing in a side street, think again; the Act is worded so clumsily (or cleverly, depending on your point of view) that the exclusion zone can actually be interpreted to include the pavements on any adjoining highway at the extremity of the perimeter and/or that entire highway itself. The whole perimeter is – effectively – another city-block wider… potentially with tendrils extending far beyond that (though , as it says here, for no more than “one kilometre in a straight line from the point nearest to it in Parliament Square”). The graphic below uses the main branch of the Home Office as an example:
Exclusion Zone Fact #6 – There are eight primary locations along the perimeter where you can actually see Parliament (but Parliament cannot see you). Unless you take the above into account, in which case there are two.
Exclusion Zone Fact #7 – In researching all of the above, I have taken steps (6,983 of them, in fact) to demonstrate the full extent of the exclusion zone… and I was within the exclusion zone the entire time I was organising and taking part in the aforementioned demonstration (with the exception of data-posting, which has been done from the comfort of my suburban web-shed). This means that – technically – I am guilty of an offence under this Act and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 51 weeks.
I saw this in London a few weeks ago and took a picture:
(For those of you in the cheap seats, it reads: Blair’s legacy will be; “He betrayed the British people. We will never forgive him.”)
To finally come to a full understanding about Tony Blair’s education policy, you only need be aware of two things:
1. Iraq.
2. A very old joke about man called Jones:
A tourist walks into a pub in Wales/Ireland/Scotland and sits next to a lonely man who’s mumbling to himself. The tourist tries to talk to the man, but has little luck. Finally, the tourist asks him his name. At this point, the old man gets quite irate and finally speaks;
“My name? You want to know my name? Come with me, lad, and I’ll tell you my name…”
They go outside, and the man gives him a short tour around the village, speaking as he goes…
“You see that barn over there? I built that barn with me own two hands. But do they call me ‘Jones the Barn Builder’? No! You see those railway lines over there? I personally laid down each and every sleeper and rail from here to the next village. But do they call me ‘Jones the Engineer’? Not on your life! You see that bridge over there? I built that bridge myself. I worked hard at it for years, and it will last for many more years to come. But do they call me ‘Jones the Bridge-Builder’? Do they hell! But you f*#k ONE sheep…”
Jones made a big mistake in thinking that any number of positive works could overshadow his most notorious endeavour, when with time and properly-focused effort, he could easily have cast aside his long-standing label with an even more notorious endeavour (or, at the very least downgraded it, to the point where he was known as ‘Jones the Granny-Strangling Kiddie-Fiddling Sheep-Shagger’).
And that, ladies and gentlemen, explains Tony Blair’s education policy.
MatGB, now at a new location, has some thoughts on his new location (and that of every other LiveJournal user). There’s another opinion here.
Discussions about inconvenience I leave to LiveJournal users. On the subject of PageRank; yes, there is a potential advantage to controlling your own sub-domain but – over time – it is much, much better to control your own domain name.
Independent – Blair fails to shake off rendition row
Guardian – UK accused of complicity in torture
Guardian – Leak puts pressure on ministers to reveal more on rendition
CuriousHamster – More on the rendition memo
UPDATE – Independent – Leading article: Give us answers, not spin
News reports:
BBC – Memo stokes ‘terror flights’ row
Scotsman – Memo points to more ‘rendition’ flights
Guardian – Torture flights: what No 10 knew and tried to cover up
Independent – Leaked memo reveals ‘torture flights cover-up’
Lotsa details and links and files and stuff:
BlairWatch – New Extraordinary Rendition Memo: Have the Lying Liars been Caught in the Lies they Tell?
CuriousHmaster – Extraordinary Obfuscation
The whole thing in a nutshell:
While Jack Straw was telling us that this issue was so very, very serious that it would be absurd to suggest that he (or Blair, or Condi) was being less-than-honest about it… he considered the issue to be so ‘serious’ that he actually formed a policy for being less-than-honest about it.
And I want to know just what the hell we can expect the ‘opposition’ to do about it!
Contact details for Sir Menzies Campbell
Contact details for David ‘wait them out’ Cameron
PS – Here you go… you’ll need this in the coming days when Straw tries to switch the focus to how difficult it is to prove a negative:
Why Jack Straw does not enjoy the privilege of plausible deniability.
UPDATE – Telegraph – Straw urged to come clean on torture flights: Prime Minister Tony Blair’s official spokesman said: “Jack Straw dealt the matter of rendition in his statement of December 12. It was a comprehensive statement. Anything we do in relation to rendition is in compliance with our international obligations. We fulfil our legal obligations. This is a classic case where people have got over excited by getting a leaked memo, rather than actually reading the content of it.” The leaked memo, written in early December, appears to be a primer to help Mr Blair deal with questions about rendition.
Ah, yes…. content and context. Let’s put this content into context, shall we?
UK committed to international law, insists Straw (Jan 16): “I want to set this out as plainly as possible. This Government is committed absolutely to our obligations under United Kingdom and international law,” Straw said at the opening of a two-day conference on transnational terrorism in London. If we want to be seen to deliver justice and offer a stronger and better world view than that of the terrorist, we have to be seen to stand by our values and our strengths. We have to show that when it comes to counter-terrorism we practice what we preach,” he said.
Yes, the rule of law… as interpreted by Jack. But this is my very favourite bit:
“… we have to be seen to stand by our values and our strengths. We have to show that when it comes to counter-terrorism we practice what we preach.”
What is seen. What is shown. There’s nothing in there about what actually gets done, now is there?
Telegraph – Plot thickens over the ‘world exclusive’ based on pub chatter
Mirror – Leo Blair kidnap plan was merely F4J pub ‘banter’
Oh. My. Goodness. How ever did the Downing St Echo get their hands on this story?
Independent – Father of all plots: the kidnap that wasn’t and the end of a protest group: However, it seems the latest ruse, far from being a serious attempt to kidnap Leo Blair, was, at most, the slightly inebriated flight of fantasy of three men in a pub. Mystery surrounds how the plan came to The Sun’s attention and why it took the Met’s Anti-Terrorist Branch (SO13) more than a month to approach the men believed to be behind it… In the febrile world of Westminster gossip, there have been dark mutterings about collusion between No 10 and The Sun over the leaking of the story during a week of embarrassing headlines for the Government over health and education. Fuel was added to the fire by reports that Dave Hill, the Prime Minister’s communications director, had been involved in lengthy discussions with the editor of The Sun, Rebekah Wade, before the story broke. But when the political editor of Sky News, Adam Boulton, implied as much, he received a dressing down from No 10.
Health and education? Try instead rendition and torture. This is a government that thinks in a forward direction, remember?
I think the time has come to ask if Jo Moore is still working for 10 Downing St in an ‘unofficial capacity’, because it seems to me that every time the public needs to be focused on how important it is that Blair get his way on one civil liberties issue or another, or if there’s something new that needs covering up, a phantom threat like the Ricin Non-Conspiracy or the ‘foiled’ ‘plot’ to bomb Canary Wharf pops up… with the Sun leading the pack.
Milk it, baby. Milk it hard!
The Scum – Father Christmas 4 Justice: Cops smashed the Leo Blair kidnap plot by threatening to SHOOT the four dads who hatched it, The Sun can reveal. Special Branch officers called at the lunatics’ homes the day after they were seen discussing the snatch while dressed in Santa Claus outfits. They were told to abandon the plan – or risk death by a police marksman’s bullet. The four were on the fanatical fringe of the Fathers 4 Justice group, which has campaigned for broken home dads to have better access to their children. And the exposure of their shocking plot led founder Matt O’Connor to formally DISBAND the organisation yesterday. The plotters – two of whom have criminal records for violence – hatched their scheme to abduct Tony Blair’s five-year-old son on December 9. They went to a seedy London pub after a Fathers 4 Justice demo in which bell-ringing marchers dressed as Santas. But unknown to them, police alarmed at growing calls for “direct action” were investigating extreme elements of the group. Scotland Yard had already been warned of a plan to firebomb offices of a Family Court service which liaises between parents and children in divorce proceedings. The four were still in Father Christmas costumes as they planned the kidnap in a smoky corner of the pub, unaware they were under surveillance. They aimed to snatch Leo to make the “ultimate” protest. But they were soon warned off. Graham Manson, a member of the extremist splinter group The Real Fathers For Justice, said last night: “They were told by SO12 officers that they knew what they were up to – and that they would be shot if they tried to carry out their plan.”
Hmmm… surveillance by SO12 officers, you say?
I think that perhaps I might have been too charitable here.
UPDATE – Well *said*, good sir! (But you do know that your son-in-law was probably in on it too, yes?)
As Leo Blair’s grandfather, I find it utterly unbelievable, actually unforgivable, that the Sun newspaper would endanger the personal safety of my five-year-old grandson by not only publishing details of the alleged kidnap plot, but also splashing this little boy’s photograph across its front pages.
There can be no excuse for this action.
I recall, at the end of last year, the discretion exercised by that same newspaper over the contretemps between its editor, Rebekah Wade, and her partner, Ross Kemp. Then the only issue was of the personal dignity of a pair of adults, not the personal security of an innocent child. Shame on you Wade and your unthinking cohorts.
Tony Booth
Blacklion, Ireland
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