“Fiat justitia, ruat caelum,” judges once bellowed. ‘Let justice be done though the heavens fall.’
Essentially that meant the law was sacrosanct even if the so called mighty in society should fall. The law must take its course.
Against this backdrop one has to ask what is the justification for David Cameron’s outburst yesterday in the wake of a court ruling on Abu Quatada who was released from Long Lartin prison?
Abú Quatada was granted bail by a senior immigration judge after ruling that the government had failed to prove he would face a fair trial in Jordan on charges of plotting bomb attacks.
On a visit to Italy, David Cameron said he was “completely fed up” with the fact that radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada won an appeal to stay in the UK.
He added: “he has no right to be there, we believe he is a threat to our country, we’ve moved heaven and earth to try and comply with every single dot and comma of every single convention to get him out of our country.
“It’s extremely frustrating and I share the British people’s frustration with the situation we find ourselves in. We will appeal the latest judgement and we will do everything we can to make sure we do have the power to expel and deport people from our country who have no right to be there and who mean us harm,” he said.
Why does Mr Cameron not realise this is the independence of the courts at work? As democrats he and we should be relieved and thankful that today’s judges are not sheep and are not governed by the principle of “an appalling vista” as echoed by Lord Denning the former Master of the Rolls in the Birmingham Six Case in 1980.
Six Irishmen were locked up for ten years blamed for IRA bombings in which they repeatedly denied any involvement. Their argument was that their convictions for the Birmingham pub bombings were secured illegally.
They claimed that the West Midlands police had beaten them up, and sued for damages. Lord Denning argued – ‘accepting the police had beaten them up meant accepting that the police had beaten false confessions out of them, which meant accepting that the police had framed innocent men for one of the worst IRA atrocities in Britain.
‘This,’ said Denning as he dismissed the case, ‘is such an appalling vista that every sensible person in the land would say, “It cannot be right these actions should go any further.”‘
The men spent 10 more years in jail before the courts accepted that they weren’t guilty after all.
Today’s judges learned many lesson from the miscarriages of justice in the Birmingham Six pub bombings and in the the Guilford Four case:
Prime Minister Cameron showed great courage in calling Bloody Sunday. He said “what happened on Bloody Sunday was both unjustified and unjustifiable. It was wrong.”
“Fiat justitia, ruat caelum.”
Mr Cameron’s use of intemperate language in the Abu Quatada case is dangerously regressive and may well reflect his state of mind right now as pressures of government weight heavily upon him.
6 Comments
He’s reflecting the feeling of the people, and he’s right to. Qatada is wanted to answer charges in another country – his presence in the UK means he can’t face justice of any sort. We’re right to make sure there isn’t a risk of torture, but he’s right to be fed up with the process. This needs streamlining.
The Brit govt. is presently meeting people whose ancestors helped do the Armenian genocide and who will shuffle the present day survivors to a ravine in the Kesab forest if Aleppo falls to the sectarian maniacs attacking it. In other words things have not really moved on since Thatcher sent the SAS to advise the Khmer Rouge. That’s Britain for you, if you see two dogs fighting, the Brits will be encouraging one of them, or both. It is the divide minus the conquer, neo-colonialism on the cheap and without the grandeur of aircraft carriers waiting in the wings.
Seems that Mr Cameron is having a Machiavellian rant!
Nah, he doesn’t have the talent, he is far too crude an operator, he is good at doing Y by damning X. for e.g. people dying of cancer are doing benefit tests sold on the basis of widespread fraud. That kind of thing, not very gentlemanly.
Cameron is playing to the howling mobs – but he will take no steps to change the laws. Empty words which may provoke some nutcases into direct action. if that were to happen would he accept any responsibility?
It is howling mob stuff for sure. I think William Hague is off to see the Sunni supremacist version of the Muslim Brotherhood’s UDA style sectarian yabba dabba do command etc. who are putting Aleppo to flames, whilst their kindred Muslim Brotherhood backed cousins in Hamas are lobbing free flight ballistic missiles on Tel Aviv. So, the former get a pat on the head, and Hamas get harsh words.