You can’t say those things in our country

Although she sounds like a complete bitch, the way the BBC reported Andrew Norfolk’s piece about Dame Lowell Goddard in The Times (£) struck a discordant note this morning.  

“Whitehall officials close to Theresa May were accused last night of covering up allegations of misconduct, including racist remarks, made against the judge in charge of Britain’s biggest public inquiry.”

announced John Humphrys in the tone of voice one might hear between neighbours exchanging tittle-tattle over the garden fence. (Les Dawson comes to mind.)

“Home Office staff and advisers received warnings about Dame Lowell Goddard’s offensive behaviour in her role as chairwoman of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) but did not end her “catastrophic” leadership.”

Fair enough. We’ve heard quite a lot about her abrasiveness already. Here come the ‘racist remarks’:

• She said that Britain had so many paedophiles “because it has so many Asian men”; voiced shock at the size of the country’s ethnic minority population; and allegedly complained of having to travel 50 miles from London to see a white face.

Hmm. Sounds more like a statement of the bleeding obvious than actual racism to me, but in a world gawn mad, stating the bleeding obvious IS considered racism. 

It’s almost as though the powers that be (for want of a better term) are still sticking their heads in the sand to avoid reality despite those real cases of ‘covering up’ where ‘Asian’ grooming gangs were concerned.

• She flew into rages and treated staff with contempt.  (!)

• She claimed not to be part of the establishment but was overly impressed by “breeding”; judged people according to their social status; and nursed a deep reverence for the royal family.

Deep reverence for the royal family! And with that incriminating evidence, her fate was sealed.

“It is understood that the judge — who denies all the allegations against her — was eventually warned by a senior official about her frequent use of racially derogatory language. She is said to have been told that “you can’t say those things in our country”. “

Silly season 2

A couple of weeks ago I suggested that Islamic State (so-called) needn’t bother to do all their own terrorism. They could either farm most of it out to the lone wolves and persons with ‘mental health issues’, officially treating them as self-employed affiliates on a zero hours basis.

Or, to save irksome admin, they could just claim responsibility for every murder that takes place anywhere.  The terror factor would be easily as efficient as are, say, bogus burglar alarms in deterring opportunist burglars. Islamic State (so-called) wouldn’t even have to lift a finger.

Alternatively, they could simply re-designate Islamic State (so-called) as a mental illness and be done with it. 

*****

Since they are having trouble finding a replacement for Dame Lowell Goddard,  may I nominate Shami Chakrabarti? She is a lawyer, isn’t she, and has had recent experience of whitewashing handling an inquiry. 

Accusations of hypocrisy on the part of Jeremy Corbyn (a long-standing opponent of the non-elected elitist Lords) for nominating Chakrabarti for a peerage are being vociferously countered by Chakrabarti supporters who insist she’d be a great asset to the Lords.  

Orchestrating reform from within, rather than from without, which chimes nicely with similar assurances by the Labour leader about his friendships with Hamas and Hezbollah. 

It’s disingenuous but at least it’s consistent.