Judge John Deed and other old retiring farts

Follow @JohnPlatinumG There were only 29 episodes of Judge John Deed, a BBC drama that got close to the true nature of the judiciary, with all the corruption, leverage and manipulation that goes on in chambers. The plug was pulled probably because it was more like what actually happens than fictional drama, and Martin Shaw has demeaned his talent to play a dreadful sixties' policeman in a drama series with a mediocre script that isn't worth the licence fee. In real life there is so much persuasion goes on in the High Court upwards that individual lives are regularly put at risk. And the most recent of these has been that of Julian Assange.

What governments get High Court and Supreme Court judges to do just before they retire is something pretty damned nasty. So Lord Hutton presided over an Inquiry into the death of Dr David Kelly, delivered a verdict of suicide from the accounts of unsworn witnesses, and retired to do charity work, when by law there should have been an inquest. Likewise, when Liam Fox was forced to resign and there was another whitewashed inquiry into the Atlantic Bridge financed foreign affairs trips and defence meetings at which Adam Werritty, without Whitehall clearance was attending, they got Gus O'Donnell to chair the inquiry, later found by Craig Murray to have been a real whitewash. Meetings between Werritty, Fox, Miliband, Gould and others were not included and were possibly set up to ease us into what now seems like an imminent War on Iran. Gus O'Donnell had already retired by the time the truth came out. In another disturbing case Judge Geoffrey Riflin QC acquitted four policemen of assault on Babar Ahmad for whom the metropolitan police had already paid damages of £60,000 for the assault in a private case. Riflin  retired straight after the case.

And who is retiring to one of the most despicable and oppressive states on the planet, Qatar, where slavery is still rife? The judge who presided over the Assange extradition appeal, Lord Phillips. Believe me, he is unlikely to be finding in favour of the poor slaves. So he did his dirty work here before retiring to continue abroad. And that is despite today's article in the Daily Mail which shows at least one of the women who accused Assange of rape was lying. As my short satirical video also claimed.

Whitewashing, laundering and retirement

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It may come as a surprise to some that there is a policy of commandeering establishment figures to oversee uncomfortable inquiries, get these figures  to deliver the outcome required by the establishment, and then pension them off. Or in at least one case, ‘retire’ them even before they can preside.

When the weapons inspector who revealed that the famous ‘dodgy dossier’ had been ‘sexed up’, to use the epithet most widely applied to it,  was found dead in the countryside, Prime minister, Tony Blair, instructed the soon to be retiring Lord Brian Hutton to hold an Inquiry into Dr David Kelly’s death. There should have been an inquest. Indeed an inquest had been started but that was abandoned, the coroner was almost instructed to quickly find a verdict of suicide, and the Hutton Inquiry ‘whitewashed’ the case. Thames Valley Police have still not released photographic evidence in their possession, despite freedom of information requests. Having done his duty to the establishment that had supported him throughout his life Lord Hutton retired.

There was some very seedy stuff going on at the highest level when Liam Fox was forced to resign. The devious dealings were conducted through a bogus charity which Fox founded, Atlantic Bridge, through which neo-con/Zionist funds were being laundered, if that is the right word. This so-called charity, of which Margaret Thatcher was honorary president, included in its rank some of the old boy network at the very heart of government. Before the Charity Commision shut it down for malpractice other cabinet and government members as well as Liam Fox served on its advisory panel. Among these were George Osborne, William Hague and Michael Gove. Lord Astor of Hever, father-in-law to the prime minister, David Cameron, was a trustee of Atlantic Bridge and was himself involved in defence discussions which included Adam Werritty, a friend of Fox, and best man at Fox’s wedding.

Werritty’s involvement, and the whole seedy defence affair, was whitewashed with a big two-handed brush by Gus O’Donnell (commonly referred to as GOD because of his initials and not due to any divine gifts). Almost immediately after he cleared the guilty of any serious misdemeanour  Gus O’Donnell retired. However a rather more devious retirement took place connected as a result of the whitewash which was only discovered by response to a letter from Paul O’Flynn, a doughty M.P. representing Newport West. As well as questioning Gus O’Donnell’s ‘inquiry’ O’Flynn hinted ‘that the Prime Minister may have broken the ministerial code’ in not engaging Sir Philip Mawer to conduct the Inquiry presided over by Gus O’Donnell.

Sir Philip Mawer himself believed he should have led this Inquiry as he was the ‘sole enforcer of the code’. So why did GOD preside over it? The prime minister alone dictates who presides over an inquiry and O’Flynn suggests:

‘There is powerful evidence that using Sir Gus O'Donnell to carry out the swift investigation was a decision taken to hide the whole truth in order to satisfy political expediency and avoid political embarrassment to the Coalition.’ 

The whitewash was particularly sketchy about the number of meetings at which Werritty was present and sketchy too about the presence of other figures at many more meetings, including the Israeli ambassador Matthew Gould, substantially more than the O’Donnell Inquiry said had taken place − more than twice as many in fact. But the retirement of Sir Philip Mawer was done so surreptitiously that most people were unaware it had taken place, and it was only when a letter from Paul O’Flynn to Sir Philip was responded to by Sir Alex Allen that it was apparent that Sir Philip had been replaced. 

Another inquiry is being called because of the O’Donnell botch-up. A House of Commons public administration committee presided over by Mr Bernard Jenkin is asking for issues to be readdressed. Reading between the lines it looks like Sir Philip Mawer was ‘pushed’ and the cynical among us might consider the reason for this is to replace him with someone as compliant to the establishment as Gus himself.

This ‘deliver and retire’ policy applies not just to inquiries. High Court cases which are seen to be of detriment to the establishment are dealt with similarly. One such case is that of Babar Ahmed. He has been held in prison without trial for 8 years and now faces extradition to the United States thanks to a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights. Ahmed was beaten by police and in a civil case awarded £60,000 damages for his injuries. A criminal case was brought before the courts and those policemen who beat Ahmed up walked free. The jury had not been informed of the damages award and the Judge, Geoffrey Rivlin QC, retired the month after this verdict was announced. Draw your own conclusions,