"Let's kill all the lawyers"

Thus spake Dick, one of Cade's mob in Shakespeare's Henry VI Part II.  Quite disgraceful, of course, one in three would be sufficient pour encourager les autres!  I had better explain and I will begin by confessing that on this Monday morning I find myself in something resembling a state of shock.  For a start I have a new 'hero' and, God help me, he is a Liberal Democrat MP, John Hemming by name.  Regular readers will know that in my opinion one of the few good things to result from this coalition government will be the utter destruction of the il-Lib-non-Dem party, as I usually refer to them.  However, I make an honourable exception for John Hemming MP, hitherto completely unknown to me, and I trust the 'Brummie' voters in the Birmingham Yardley constituency will vote him back into parliament with an even bigger majority.  Whatever else he does or does not do, he at least remembers the very basic duty of a Member of Parlaiment, to stand as the final bastion of liberty for and on behalf of his constituents against all-comers high and low.

As this post is concerned with legal matters I will use barrister-speak by saying that I am obliged to Anna Raccoon whose excellent blog is now well and truly bookmarked under 'Favourites'.  I must also raise my hat in thanks to 'my Lord Bishop Hill' for pointing me in the right direction.  In her post, Ms. Raccoon draws attention to an event which took place in Parliament last Thursday and during which Mr. Hemming earned his accolade from me:

On Thursday afternoon, in a back room of Parliament, history was made.  A few MPs found themselves a backbone; they found a way in which they could exercise their Freedom of Speech and perform their ancient duty, drawn from the Bill of Rights 1688, of redressing the grievances of the citizens who rely on them.

But first he and other MPs were warned by the Chairman that they were walking into a legal and political minefield and that caution should be employed:

The speaker, Mr Peter Bone, issued that warning because he knew what was coming; he understood the careful dance that must be performed before him.

Every single MP knows what has been going on; the Speaker of the House knows what has been going on; David Cameron knows what has been going on; to my personal knowledge, every single media outlet has known what has been going on; none of them were prepared to risk the wrath of the establishment by letting you know what has been going on. Do please Google and see if you can find one single reference in the media yesterday or today to the astounding events detailed in Westminster Hall on Thursday afternoon.

Mr. Hemming, armed only with, dare I say without rousing snorts of laughter, 'the sword of truth', duly stood up and launched into a frightening, almost Gothic, horror story in which various individuals and organisations of the state, including the Law Courts themselves, have connived together in using threats of the most cruel nature, including a threat to take a man's child into state care, if the individual concerned by word or deed contacted their Member of Parliament, in this case, Mr. Hemming himself.  In other words, these 'jacks-in-office', these high and mighty 'Cocklecarrots', these slimy bureaucrats, have ganged together to defy the Bill of Rights, as explained by Hemming, himself, in the parliamentary committee:

I often find the older laws interesting to look at, and they are all available on the modern websites. On the statute law website, found at legislation.gov.uk, we can find the Bill of Rights 1688, which is sometimes called the Act of Rights 1689. Article 9 of that Bill is on freedom of speech, and says

"the Freedome of Speech and Debates or Proceedings in Parlyament ought not to be impeached or questioned in any Court or Place out of Parlyament."

Hemming provides several examples where various 'authorities' have done exactly that but perhaps the most egregious was the case of a man, falsely accused of rape and subsequently cleared, who was specifically warned by social services and by the court that he must not under any circumstances contact his Member of Parliament, John Hemming, who was specifically named, because such contact would lead to his daughter being taken into care.

My 'ghast' is well and truly 'flabbered', and I use that pathetic 'joke' because, in truth, I am enraged and hardly dare write in detail what I feel about this disgusting and frightening state of affairs.  If you can spare the time, it is a long read, try and go through the parliamentary report of the debate in this committee, it is like following Alice through the looking-glass into a mad, bad world.  In the meantime, I can only wish John Hemming and those few MPs of all parties who support him, the very best of good fortune in their lonely campaign to have this festering can of legal, bureaucratic shit done away with!

 

Comments

[Laban Tall]

John Hemming is quite a character.

http://ukcommentators.blogspot.com/2005/10/cheeky-chappy.html

But the long-suffering Mrs Hemming may have finally snapped.

http://ukcommentators.blogspot.com/2010/10/hell-hath-no-furry.html

[David Duff]

Thanks, Laban, but tell me, how it is that these ugly little squirts like Hemming have such exciting sex lives? I mean, modesty forbids and all that, but compared to him I'm a living god and my sex life died of boredom years ago!

Anyway, I forgive him his transgressions so long as he pursues those bloody lawyers and social service agents.