Airstrip One

Who will rid us of these troublesome judges?

Another example of the grotesque parody that functions as British law arrived on the internet. The parody managed to combine two recurrent themes that shape our institutional decay: legal judgements that demonstrate a contempt for the concerns of the public as opposed to concern for the abstract rights of the accused (but never any consideration for their victims); and the incompetence of the New Labour civil service that could not be arsed to follow procedures and place the Real IRA on the list of proscribed terrorist organisations.

The bollock juggler civil servants who argued that Real, Continuity, Provisional or Official are all the IRA found that their laziness and penchant for shortcuts led to a shock judicial decision: the Real IRA is not an illegal organisation. That cut short their testicle play for today.

Even if they didn't belong to an illegal organisation, the accuseds were still remanded on charges of murder. Even the judges couldn't get them off that hook (unlike Hamza who will probably get off on the grounds he shouldn't be fried).

(23.06, 27th May 2004)