Crimes Against Humanity
Rod Liddle writing in The Sunday Times did a good job of sending up the ridiculous antics of the police and the BBC who seem to have been working in tandem to publicise allegations against Cliff Richard.
Now I have no idea whether the allegations have any substance, but as they are still under investigation (after a year apparently) they have no place in the public realm.
And as everyone knows The Leveson Inquiry into the cultures and ethics of the British media criticised the police extensively over their willingness to leak damaging information and trash people's reputations in this way.
Cliff made some criminal records but he deserved better
By Rod Liddle - The Sunday Times
Swoop swoop, it’s the sex-case plod in action again, a very familiar sight on your television screens this past couple of years. The dawn raid on some previously much-loved public figure, someone thrillingly famous who is maybe, if we’re being honest, a bit past it. Someone we used to love, back in the day. Back in what we now have to accept were the bad old days.
So, the dawn raid: loads of very serious-looking Old Bill tramping into some sleb palace, some sleb mansion, and emerging an hour or so later looking righteous and justified, tramping back out to their cars carrying the usual black plastic bags full of slebstuff. And with the media in rapt attendance. Always that. The most important thing.
As usual, the target of this frenetic — and, you have to say, gleeful — extravaganza is one of those wholesome entertainers your mum really liked, someone who depended for their celebrity on an easy-going, unchallenging, middle-of-the-road appeal. Someone who maybe induced in the rest of us a certain queasiness. A staple of Saturday-night family viewing. Yes, this time it’s Sir Cliff Richard.
The Old Bill did their swooping thing on Richard’s vast riverside mansion, apparently as part of some deal cooked up with the BBC. In traipsed the coppers with Auntie’s helicopter filming it all from above, live for the 24-hour news channel — hey, look whose career and reputation we’re destroying this time! Got ourselves a walkin’, talkin’, livin’ sex offender. Well, maybe, if it ever gets anywhere near court. We shall see.
I’m no great fan of Richard. There may even be a case for prosecuting him under Crimes Against Humanity for Mistletoe and Wine, with several other offences taken into consideration. Such as his dance moves during Wired for Sound. And helping to launch Olivia Neutron Bomb on an unsuspecting world. Oh, and all the early stuff, back in the 1950s when the young Harry Webb took this vital and exciting new music from the USA and cleverly removed from it every vestige of sexiness and exotic allure.
But no matter about my spiteful little asides, my haughty disdain. Richard was adored in Britain, perhaps more than any pop star this country has ever produced, and for a longer period. And this is how we treat the man.
Especially, this is how the police and the BBC treat the bloke. They conspire to traduce his reputation with as much humiliating publicity as is humanly possible. It’s a big production effort, no expense spared. And the poor man is the very last to know that all of this is happening. Keep him in the dark — it’ll be a much bigger story as a consequence.
As some MPs have suggested, the collusion between the broadcaster and the police in this episode requires investigation. One of the MPs who has complained on behalf of Richard is Nigel Evans, who, of course, has reason to mistrust this whole salacious, sex-obsessed circus, having been cleared of historic rape charges that should surely never have been brought in the first place.
But the police are captivated and thrilled by this new role of theirs, slebwitchfinder-general. And the issue has become politicised by the metropolitan left: venture a doubt that this demented hounding is always worthwhile, that it might be unfair and not necessarily, you know, just — and you will be marked down as an abuse denier. Someone who thinks sex crimes are not important.
Meanwhile, the police have turned 180 degrees — having once taken the view that the famous and powerful should not be held to account, because they are famous and powerful, they now seem to be of the view that the famous and powerful are all guilty, and that their reputations should be trashed long before a jury gets anywhere near the case.
Incidentally,why were the Old Bill searching Richard’s house at all? The alleged incident took place decades ago almost 200 miles distant. Is it not grandstanding of a repellent and dangerous kind?
— I have just ordered £50 worth of grooming products from Garnier, including their Ultra-Lift Pro-Deep Wrinkle Roller and Skin Renew anti-Dark Circle Eye Roller. Yes, I’m back in the game. I’m hot.
This is more money than I have spent on male grooming products in half a century, but it has to be done. The vile George Galloway has demanded a boycott of Garnier because some of its products were sent to female Israeli soldiers: hence my immediate order.
I don’t know what grooming products Hamas use. When I find out, I’ll tell you and we can boycott them together.
So, the dawn raid: loads of very serious-looking Old Bill tramping into some sleb palace, some sleb mansion, and emerging an hour or so later looking righteous and justified, tramping back out to their cars carrying the usual black plastic bags full of slebstuff. And with the media in rapt attendance. Always that. The most important thing.
As usual, the target of this frenetic — and, you have to say, gleeful — extravaganza is one of those wholesome entertainers your mum really liked, someone who depended for their celebrity on an easy-going, unchallenging, middle-of-the-road appeal. Someone who maybe induced in the rest of us a certain queasiness. A staple of Saturday-night family viewing. Yes, this time it’s Sir Cliff Richard.
The Old Bill did their swooping thing on Richard’s vast riverside mansion, apparently as part of some deal cooked up with the BBC. In traipsed the coppers with Auntie’s helicopter filming it all from above, live for the 24-hour news channel — hey, look whose career and reputation we’re destroying this time! Got ourselves a walkin’, talkin’, livin’ sex offender. Well, maybe, if it ever gets anywhere near court. We shall see.
I’m no great fan of Richard. There may even be a case for prosecuting him under Crimes Against Humanity for Mistletoe and Wine, with several other offences taken into consideration. Such as his dance moves during Wired for Sound. And helping to launch Olivia Neutron Bomb on an unsuspecting world. Oh, and all the early stuff, back in the 1950s when the young Harry Webb took this vital and exciting new music from the USA and cleverly removed from it every vestige of sexiness and exotic allure.
But no matter about my spiteful little asides, my haughty disdain. Richard was adored in Britain, perhaps more than any pop star this country has ever produced, and for a longer period. And this is how we treat the man.
Especially, this is how the police and the BBC treat the bloke. They conspire to traduce his reputation with as much humiliating publicity as is humanly possible. It’s a big production effort, no expense spared. And the poor man is the very last to know that all of this is happening. Keep him in the dark — it’ll be a much bigger story as a consequence.
As some MPs have suggested, the collusion between the broadcaster and the police in this episode requires investigation. One of the MPs who has complained on behalf of Richard is Nigel Evans, who, of course, has reason to mistrust this whole salacious, sex-obsessed circus, having been cleared of historic rape charges that should surely never have been brought in the first place.
But the police are captivated and thrilled by this new role of theirs, slebwitchfinder-general. And the issue has become politicised by the metropolitan left: venture a doubt that this demented hounding is always worthwhile, that it might be unfair and not necessarily, you know, just — and you will be marked down as an abuse denier. Someone who thinks sex crimes are not important.
Meanwhile, the police have turned 180 degrees — having once taken the view that the famous and powerful should not be held to account, because they are famous and powerful, they now seem to be of the view that the famous and powerful are all guilty, and that their reputations should be trashed long before a jury gets anywhere near the case.
Incidentally,why were the Old Bill searching Richard’s house at all? The alleged incident took place decades ago almost 200 miles distant. Is it not grandstanding of a repellent and dangerous kind?
— I have just ordered £50 worth of grooming products from Garnier, including their Ultra-Lift Pro-Deep Wrinkle Roller and Skin Renew anti-Dark Circle Eye Roller. Yes, I’m back in the game. I’m hot.
This is more money than I have spent on male grooming products in half a century, but it has to be done. The vile George Galloway has demanded a boycott of Garnier because some of its products were sent to female Israeli soldiers: hence my immediate order.
I don’t know what grooming products Hamas use. When I find out, I’ll tell you and we can boycott them together.
